The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Artifacts
by PNG pyro
Summary: Ages after the Hero of Time, magic is gone from Hyrule. Someone is trying to change that, though...
1. Prologue

The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Artifacts

**Prologue**

**:::::::::::**

_Dream. Dreaming. I'm dreaming. _

The realization comes to me a second too late. I slip, loose my foothold. My fingers brush the end of the rope, closing on air as it flutters above me on the cliff face. I frantically try for another handhold, but the cliff is suddenly smooth, the landscape changing with the impossible plasticity of the imagination. I fall.

_Damn. Wake up; wake up, _"WAKE UP!"

The sound tears from my throat, ringing in my ears. I fall for another second before realizing it isn't working.

Normally, I would enjoy falling in a dream. I might even flex my dream powers, and turn it into flight. Tonight, however, something is different. I don't feel the elation that normally comes with realizing I'm dreaming, and I can't summon the lighter-than-air feeling that would slow my fall. All I feel is a twinge of fear, and a strong sense of deja-vu, as if this isn't the first time my dream has ended in an impossible fall.

Or maybe, started with a fall?

Because I'm certainly not waking up, whatever's going on.

"Damn, damn, damn it AAAAAAARGHHH!" I scream in frustration on finding myself unable to jerk out of the dream.

I hit the ground. It hurts like hell.

I scramble to my feet, sick with apprehension. I'm here again. Why couldn't I remember a minute ago? I've been here many times. Each time I fall, and each time…something happens. Something bad. Whatever happened, I can't remember clearly; all I remember is a feeling of soul-crushing, mind-numbing inevitability, and an impossible sense of futility. Whatever dream I've been caught in, it is bad. And there is nothing I can do about it.

At first glance, the forest clearing I was in seems like it should be a pleasant place. But I can already feel the creeping terror of a nightmare, illogical but undeniable, beginning to seize me.

"Calm. Just a dream. Just a-"

A bush rustles. I jump, cut off in mid sentence, the fear surging higher in my mind. I turn my head slowly, looking towards the source of the noise. Red eyes stare back at me, and the terror in my heart jumps up another notch.

One very small part of me is standing back and laughing. This isn't scary. This can't hold a candle to some of the monsters in my nightmares. Remember the one with all the needles? Now THAT was a monster.

But fear knows no reason, and my breathing begins to quicken. Hating myself for it, I spin and throw myself into a run, dodging between trees and bushes, vaulting over rocks and fallen logs. I'm making a lot of noise, crashing through the forest in a panic, but I can still hear It coming up behind me. Before, the fear had been apprehension and terror of the unknown, but now it had solidified into a solid, gut-wrenching horror that filled the pit of my stomach with ice. I know it will catch me. It always does.

I throw myself into a slide, skimming on my forearms and belly under a fallen tree too tall to leap. The fine black soil of the forest flies up, filling my eyes and mouth. I cough and choke, some part of my mind screaming that this is a dream, I can still breathe, don't panic, WAKE UP, but I stumble to my feet and try to run onwards when It catches up to me. (I knew it would.)

A glimmer of gold grabs my attention first, as It leaps onto the log I'd just skidded under. It pauses for a second, as if to size me up. 'It' is a huge golden wolf, mane bristling and eyes red as blood. Just the sight of it pins me where I stand, dread rooting my feet to the ground, as half-remembered shadows of pain wash through my brain. It bares bone-white fangs at me, a snarl of rage and hate. A scrap of something green is caught between the teeth. And then It pounces.

I yell again as its giant paws hit my chest, throwing me to the ground. My head cracks sickeningly on a nearby branch, and I nearly black out, but I still smell its foul breath in my face, and then an indescribably awful, searing, fierce pain in my throat. Its jaws drip red, and I…die.

The last thing I hear before I waking up is a snarling growl which, once again, impossibly forms words. "YOU CAN'T RUN FROM DESTINY."

**::::::::::::::::**


	2. Life Is Fine

**Forward**

So, I decided to post this before the weekend since I finished it early. Tell me what you think of it; I would especially appreciate your thoughts on how I'm dealing with the first-person viewpoint I'm using. I find it difficult to decide whether I should be using present tense or past tense; there may be some awkward switches in the middle. Well, if they bother you, please point them out.

That's all, Pyro out.

**Life is Fine**

**:::::::::::::**

"Pwah!" A yell jerks out of my throat as I wake up, bolting upright and throwing the covers off of my bed. The sheets are soaked in sweat, and my heart is beating fast, but sweet birdsong trails in through the open window, and the warm air of a spring day gently plays with the curtains.

I shook my head slowly, trying to grasp what's left of the dream. But the sudden movement on awakening has shattered it, and it's lost to me. The fragments slip through my fingers, like trying to grasp smoke; the faster you grab for it, the faster it squirts out of your grasp. I sigh, and heave myself out of bed.

Bare feet on carpet; I wiggle my toes and stretch, feeling muscles loosen and relax. I rub my neck; it hurts, oddly. I didn't do anything to strain it yesterday, did I…? Couldn't be. I step over to the window and swing it wide open, letting the green-smelling air of a beautiful day waft in.

"Sein, breakfast!" Dad's voice effortlessly pulls me out of my trance.

"Coming!" I quickly throw off my pajamas and pull on a clean pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I grab a comb and run it through my black hair, sweeping it out of my eyes, and tromp down the stairs into the kitchen.

Dad and Hannah are sitting at the dining room table, waiting for me. I casually slide into my chair and reach for the milk.

"So, what are you two up to today?" Dad asks, around a spoonful of oatmeal.

"I'm off to the library," Hannah says. "Hey, Sein, got any books to return?"

"Yeah, I'll grab them for you after breakfast. I'm going downtown to see if I can pick up a carburetor float for my motorbike; it's been running poorly, and I figure the float valve is sticking again. I really ought to have replaced that last time I had it apart."

"Ok, sounds good. I'm going to be working in my studio, so knock if you need me. Hannah, could you stop by the post office on your way to the library?"

"Daaaad…"

I tune them out, concentrating on my granola for a minute. Hannah will agree to it, eventually, once Dad offers to pay her bus fare to the library. My thoughts stray from my motorbike, attempting to recover scraps of my dream from this morning, but it's still impossible. An impression lingers for a minute, and then flees. Something about a forest? But why would that be scary? Whatever. I stand, gathering up the bowls and cereal, while Hannah collects books and skips out the door, and Dad wipes the table.

"Ok, see you later," I say, setting the dishes on the counter as Dad heads for his studio.

"Yeah, later." His door snicks shut, leaving me to my own devices for the rest of the day.

**::::::::::::**

I spend a quiet half-hour extracting my motorbikes carburetor, and taking it to pieces. Finally getting the float out, I drop it into a plastic bag and seal it, and slip it into my pocket. I throw the disassembled carburetor into an ice-cream bucket for when I get back, and head out into the town.

Kakariko isn't much in itself, really. It was, at one point. We used to be into mining in a big way; a lot of Hyrule's iron used to come down the winding roads from the Goron Mountain range north of the town. The mountains are still mined, although it's a much smaller industry; most of the mines ran out of ore years ago. Still, we do a lot of manufacturing. Cars, motorbikes, trains; you name it, if it has an engine, Kakariko makes them, or did a one point.

I shut the garage door and head downtown, for Old Kakariko. There are still a lot of repair shops in that part of town, and it's not too far from our house. I've always enjoyed walking the old streets. There's a lot of history there, in the old wrought-iron lamp posts and brick sidewalks.

I stroll slowly, enjoying the warm day. It's pretty early, still; the repair shop I'm headed to opens nineish, but I don't want to get there too soon. Although they would let me in, if I knock. If I'd walked a bit faster, I might have missed the yell.

"Haaat!"

It was almost quiet, a controlled burst of sound coming from the alley I was passing. I nearly walked on past, but instinctively turned my head when I heard it. About fifteen feet in, deep in the shadows, a big man was holding a knife to someone's throat, and clutching his side.

"Hey!" I reacted without thinking. "What are you doing?"

Gahh. I almost kicked myself. I halfway expected the big guy to turn around and say,

"Mugging him. What does it look like?"

What I DIDN'T expect was to see the smaller guy duck under the big guy's arm, take a step forward and spin kick the mugger so hard he bounced off the brick wall. The guy with the kick snaps his head up and shoots me a killer glare.

"Get out of here!" I hear him growl. "This doesn't concern you! GO!"

I stop, frozen for a second. I'd been fumbling my cell phone out of my pocket, but shock keeps me from dialing. What kind of gratitude is that? Seriously, this guy-

"DUCK!"

Some tone in his voice makes me throw myself forward. I nearly get out of the way, but something blunt smashes into the back of my head, sending a wave of pain through my skull. I roll over, head throbbing, and scramble to my feet, throwing glances up and down the alley. The first mugger hadn't been alone. And these don't look like ordinary thugs, either. What the hell? There are two guys closing in from each end of the alley! What have I gotten myself into? My eyes dart up and down the narrow road, searching for something, anything, to use as a weapon. There! I scoop up a pair of scissors. Not much, but sharp. I snap them in half, and without thinking, step towards the two guys blocking my exit.

The more I look at them, the more they seem like bad news. Big and burly, they exude menace. They're both wearing black sweats, similar enough that it almost seems like a uniform, same as the other guy lying on the pavement. One of them carries a knife, while the second has a small leather cudgel. Probably what hit me? I put my hand to the side of my head, and it comes away sticky with blood.

Amazed at how analytical my brain can by while my heart and lungs freak out, I stand there dumbly for a second until they charge me.

It's lucky the alleyways in Old Kakariko are narrow, or they both would have been coming at me at once, and I would have been sunk. As it was, however, only the guy with the knife can get at me, while the guy with the club is blocked behind him. I think for a split second about how much I would prefer to be facing the guy with the club, before the knife jabs at me.

My body takes over. Reflexes I didn't know I still had snapped my spine straight, bend my knees slightly, and balance me on the balls of my feet. My arm snakes out to meet his thrust, and I parry him with the scissors blade I'd snatched up, as neatly as that.

The man nearly drops the knife in shock. He'd underestimated me. I stand still, just as shocked. I'd underestimated myself. It only lasts half a second, though, until my body remembers the rest of that move, and I step forward, pressing my advantage. The blade I'm using is shorter, thinner, and all around more useless than his, but something in the back of my brain tells me to twist my wrist just so, lean forward just like that, and flick my blade downward-

_Claaaang. _

And just like that, his knife is on the ground. And, before I can do anything else, the guy with the spin kicks steps past me and takes over the fight. I step back, watching in amazement as he kicks the first man in the knee and when he stumbles, again in the shoulder. The two muggers stumble into each other, and fall over. The kicker steps forward, casually stomping on the forearm of the man with the club.

_Crack._

The guy drops his cosh and yells, loudly. I glance backwards; sure enough, the two guys who'd been standing in the other end of the alley are lying on the ground, too. One of them groans.

"We need to get out of here." A hand shakes me out of my daze, and pulls me towards the near end of the alley. I follow quietly, out into the sunlight. We walk in silence for a second, until my companion looks at me and winces at the blood running down my face.

"Listen, you'd better come with me for a bit. I'll get you cleaned up at my house." He pats his pockets, pulls out a handkerchief and hands it to me. "Hold that to your head, or it'll bleed all over your shirt." I comply, still feeling fuzzy and slightly shocked, as he leads me onto the next bus to stop at the corner. He must have paid my fare, because I can't remember doing it.

We didn't ride long before getting off. He leads me down the block a bit, until we come to a stop at a dilapidated house. A single story tall, it slumps in the middle of a poorly-kept yard, peeling paint and cracked windows making it a match for most of the neighborhood. I stop in the middle of the lawn, and grab the shoulder of this guy I'd been following blindly. He stops, glancing back at me with a somewhat surprised look.

"What the…hell…was all that?" I grate, determined not to move another step until I get some sort of answers from this guy. "They weren't after your wallet. Not with five guys. And you're not ordinary, either. That was some fancy martial arts you used there. Who are you?"

He sighs, and his face spins through expressions; vague annoyance is replaced by worry, which is replaced by carefully studied curiosity.

"Come inside. Let me get you a bandage for your head."

"Answers first." I walked over to an artistically placed boulder, left over from some failed landscaping attempt, and sit down. "I'll wait here." I take the time to get a good look at him. His hair is blond, very light, and his eyes are blue, also very pale. He matches it up with extremely white skin.

"Ok," he says, nodding, maybe realizing that I don't quite feel comfortable walking into the dingy house of someone who I've never met before, and who can single-handedly outfight five men unarmed. Well, maybe four men. I did disarm that one.

"My name is Kirio. I guess I owe you some answers, for your help. I'm an agent of the Sheikah, and those men were Gerudo peons. I'm sorry to cause trouble on your turf, but we were in the middle of a delicate…discussion, when formalities broke down."

What. Gerudo? Ok, I've heard of them. Some sort of cartel, right? But Sheikah? Aren't they assassins? Some old servants of the Royal Family?

He apparently figured the blank look of incomprehension I shot him was annoyance, or something worse. He raised his hands nervously, looking like he was about to start sweating.

"Right, Ok, I realize it's a serious breach of etiquette, but we'll work it out. Can I give you a message to take to your council, or elders, or whoever's in authority here? I really can't waste time working out formalities right now, when-"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Huh?" He stopped in mid sentence, a surprised look on his face. "What?"

"I. Don't. Know what you're talking about."

"You're a _flat_? But... Those moves; you stopped that guy like you knew what you were doing. And that was no ordinary self-defense, either…" his words trailed off, as he re-evaluated me.

"I learned a bit of sword fighting from my grandpa, before he died. I'm shocked I remembered enough to stop that guy from putting his knife in me. I haven't practiced in, like, four years."

"You really _aren't_ Deeper."

"If I even knew what that meant, I might be offended by your tone."

"Hah!" His laugh is full of relief. "You don't know what I'm talking about! Ok, I can deal with that. Ok, ok. Let's get you cleaned up." He grabs my arm again, and basically shoves me into the house, and then leaves me in the kitchen while he rummages around in the bathroom for medical supplies. I decide against bolting; he doesn't seem to be malicious, although he also didn't seem to be running on the same wavelengths as other people.

The interior of the house is barely better kept than the outside. Dirty dishes are piled all over the counters, some filled with scummy water and floating grease. The trash can overflows, and the table is covered in scraps and shreds of newspaper, photos and clippings from magazines, even a few printouts from websites. I step over to it, browsing through what I can see for something interesting.

**Ancient temple Unearthed!** Reads one headline. Photos of ancient statues and decrepit stonework are underneath it, all summed up in a neat paragraph about Hylian history.

**Historians Baffled by Discoveries in Lake Hylia. **The article seems to about new evidence someone had uncovered for the existence of a giant cannon near the lake.

**Book of Mudora Finally Uncovered? **This last one was a bit more interesting; someone is claiming to have found a complete copy of the Book of Mudora. That would be something worth seeing. The picture is black and white, but the cover of the book has a neat design on it; a Triforce, and some sort of bird.

"Here!" Kirio sweeps back into the room, re-stacking the dishes on the counter until he has enough room to deposit his armful of medical supplies. He urges me to turn around, and then carefully disinfects my wound, and applies liquid Band-Aid to it. It isn't much more than a scrape and a bruise, but it hurts like crazy.

A minute later, he ushers me firmly out the door, with directions to the nearest bus station. Still not quite sure what just happened, I slip my hands into my pockets, and curse.

I dropped my phone in the alley. I'm not sure I want to go back and get it.

**::::::::::::**

So, what did you think? This is probably about the average length chapters are going to be, although it might be a bit longer. If you liked the story, review so I don't get tired of this project and simply drop it…


	3. Cracks in Normality

**Forward**

W00t! Reviews! That means early(ish) post! Pretty happy about how this chapter turned out, although it's a bit shorter than I expected. This whole thing is going to end up being shorter than I expected. Not that that's really a bad thing, though.

Well, whatever. That's all for now.

Pyro out.

**Cracks in Normality**

**:::::::::::::::::**

**VROOOOM! VROOOOR!**

The rumble of the engine filled the small garage, and gas fumes quickly made me cough. I killed the engine, listening intently as it spun down smoothly. I wiped my hands on a semi-clean rag, and nodded in satisfaction. It sounded good; it would probably run fine, at least for a while, but I'd have to take it out for a ride to check it.

I sighed, and started to clean up. I still wasn't sure what to make of what had happened yesterday. Gerudo? Sheikah? Brawling in alleys? The whole thing seemed very cloak and dagger. Although it's not like it mattered that much. I didn't really want to try demanding more answers from Kirio. I'd checked on my phone, and it definitely wasn't in the alley anymore. I could go to the police, but that might not help. Especially if the Gerudo are involved.

"Hey, you got your bike fixed?" My sisters light voice pulled me out of my thoughts. Hannah stood in the garage door, silhouetted against the bright light.

"Yeah. Get anything good at the library yesterday?"

"Yup! I found this great science fiction book, about a guy called Phaeton. It's set in the future, and he's lost his memory…Oh! Right, I came out because of this. Someone found your phone!"

She held the cordless handset out to me. I hooked it out of her hand and gingerly held it up to my ear, attempting not to get grease on it.

"Hello, this is Sein."

"Hey, Sein, my name is Blind." The voice coming out of the phone was cheerful, pleasant, and definitely female. She sounded young, too.

"So, you found my phone?"

"I assume so. This is the first number in the contacts, and it's labeled 'home'."

"Yup, that sounds like mine."

"Ok, cool. Well, can we meet somewhere, so I can give it back to you?"

"Sure, where would be a good spot for you?"

"How about Lucidia Park? I'll by going past there in a few minutes. Look for me by the gazebo."

"Um. Ok, yeah, that'll work. Let me check a few things on my motorbike, and I'll be there shortly. I just finished putting the thing back together."

"Fine, see you soon."

I handed the phone back to Hannah.

"Thanks, sis. I'm going to go meet her at Lucidia Park, and get my phone back." I carefully pulled the dipstick out and checked the oil level. It really ought to be done when the engine was warm, but I could at least tell I had a reasonable amount left. Hannah watched as I wheeled the street bike out into the driveway, and handed me my helmet.

"Thanks, I'll take you for a ride later. We could go bird watching, if you like."

I smiled as her face lit up. She loved hiking and bird watching, just like me; I would often take my bike up the winding trails through the Goron Mountains, looking for interesting places to hike and new birds to sketch for my notebook. The book was getting pretty full, recently.

I started the engine, thrilling as the rumble of power raced up my spine. My bike wasn't the biggest or the fastest around, but it sure was fun. I eased off the clutch, and rolled gently out into the street, before giving in and twitching the accelerator. I disappeared in a haze of white smoke.

Still burning some oil. Oh well.

I carefully guided the big bike through traffic, taking a slightly longer than necessary to reach Lucidia park. I cruised down wide, tree-lined lanes, and listened to my engine echo off the buildings crowding the narrow streets as I passed through different neighborhoods. I was a little sad when I reached the park; it had been a few weeks ago that my bike quit, and I'd really missed the feeling of freedom riding it gave me. I tucked it into a motorbike parking stall, and dropped a few coins into the meter. Lucidia Park is downtown, and parking can be killer, although it looked pretty empty today.

The gazebo was easy to locate; it was copper and wrought iron, tucked into a corner of the park near the bend in the river. It was surprisingly isolated. I spotted Blind before I got close; she was lounging on one of the benches, back against one of the iron posts, legs stretched the length of the seat.

I took the opportunity to study her for a second before she noticed me. Shoulder length rust colored hair fell carelessly over the shoulders of a brown turtleneck. She'd kicked her sandals off, and was swinging one foot carelessly.

"Blind?" I said, attracting her attention before I got uncomfortably close.

She snapped the book she'd been reading shut, and slipped it into her purse. Up close, I could see she had light brown eyes, almost yellow in color.

"Sein, right?" She rummaged around in her purse for a second, and pulled out my phone. She didn't hand it to me right away, however.

"You met Kirio the other day."

I froze. Cold sweat slicked my back as her tawny eyes went from friendly to piercing in a split second.

"What?" I croaked, my throat suddenly dry. What's going on here? How does she know that? WHAT have I gotten myself involved in?

"Listen to me, Sein. I don't know what he promised you in return for your help. But whatever it is, don't trust him. He's not what he appears. He-" She stopped, visibly struggling to calm down. "He stole something from me. From us, the Gerudo. You don't want to get involved. I don't know who you're with, but they can't shield you from that. Stay out of this."

"Hold on!" I interjected, waving my hands to get her attention. "Hooold on. Listen, I'm really, seriously, not involved. I don't know what's going on here, and I don't think I want to. I helped Kirio because I thought he was getting mugged. If I'd known how good he was at fighting, I would have just walked on past. Please, can I have my phone back? I just want to forget this ever happened."

She stared for a second, mouth pressed into a thin line, and then slowly handed it back.

"Sein, I'm not sure if you're really deep, or incredibly flat. Either way, stay away from Kirio. Stay away from me. If you don't want trouble, just leave it at that."

"No worries there. I didn't ask to be involved."

I accepted the phone from her, and slowly turned around, heading back towards my bike. A glance over my shoulder showed her standing there, staring at me. I steeled myself, turned and casually strolled off.

What's _with_ this? It's almost like I've started to attract crazy people. Like something big is going down, and I'm being sucked into the middle of it. I shuddered, suddenly cold despite the day being quite pleasant and scratched my neck, which had suddenly begun to hurt. Destiny only worked in stories, right? Either way, I couldn't get these odd happenings off my mind. I worked the recent events over in my head as I sped through traffic, nearly missing a red light once because of being wrapped in thought.

"Home!" I declared, hanging my helmet up on a peg and stepping into the kitchen. Hannah sat at the table, my bird watching journals spread around her, open to various pages.

"Hey, Sein, what's this?" She held up one of the notebooks; the one I'd been drawing in last night. In it was a fair sketch of the winged sigil I'd seen on Kirio's table, the Triforce-and-bird thingy.

"It's a design that's on the cover of an old book. I found it in a newspaper clipping. Why?"

"I saw it on a poster at the library."

"Really?" I paused for a second, curious, but also hesitant. I wanted to know why Kirio had been interested in this book, but at the same time, I didn't really want to get any more involved with him than I already was. Ah, whatever. It can't hurt to ask, right? "What was the poster for?"

"There's going to be an exhibit of old books and things. I wonder if this book is going to be there. Do you think it's about birds?"

"I don't think so, but maybe we should go and see."

"Nah, it'll be all adults and boring stuff. Hey, let's go look for birds!" She piled the journals up, and ran to grab her motorbike helmet. "Pleeeease?"

"Yeah, ok, let's go!" I followed her out, and lifted her onto my motorbike, pushing my worries aside for a while. It was holidays, after all. We could take it easy once in a while.

**:::::::::::::::::::**

Well, there you go. I hope you enjoy the plot thickening I added. I don't know if I can say it gets _better, _but it at least gets more complicated from here on out!

**Pylon: **Thanks for the review, the advice, and the encouragement! I now officially have motivation to continue! Also, I'd love to party, but I have a feeling your deceiving me about at least one of those things…possibly the desert…? Srslytho, I appreciate the advice; although I doubt romance is my thing, (don't know till you try, though.) I'll definitely try my hand at humor sooner or later. Thanks for reading!

**I.K.A**.: Wow! I got the lurkers to talk to me! Thanks for the review; I appreciate the encouragement! I'm trying to make it character driven, but I think it's got a fair amount of plot-driven bits, too. Not that that's bad, but I'd rather have a pro-active main character, and I'm not sure I hit that all the time. I'm glad the first-person seems to be working so far, and I'll try and watch my comparisons; my brain doesn't always work the same way as others, so there's definitely potential for disconnect there. I'm especially glad you liked the fight scene, since I tend to either rush through them, or try and do a blow-by-blow, and neither seems to work extremely well for me. Well, I'm still learning.


	4. The Widening Gyre

**Foreward**

Hey guys, me again. I'm updating early again because it's been confirmed that I'm going to be going north again for the summer; I won't have access to much internet there, so I won't be posting regularly, if at all. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Pyro out.

**The Widening Gyre**

**::::::::::::::::::::**

"Hah!"

I swung the piece of dowel I'd taken from Dad's scrap heap in a swift arc, starting the third set of the forms I'd been practicing.

"Hey, Sein!" Hannah stepped out of the house, waving a piece of paper at me, and breaking my concentration. Leaning my "sword" against the garage, I walked over and looked at it.

It was a flyer for the archeological exhibit.

It had been a week since all the weirdness. I hadn't thought about it much more, taking Blind's advice and ignoring the whole thing. Going to this wouldn't be really involving myself, though, would it? I mean, I just wanted to see what was going on. It's not like I'm looking for Kirio, or trying to figure out what he's doing. I just want to go see the book. That's innocent enough, right?

"Hey, Sein, what are you practicing?"

"Sword fighting. Like Gramps used to teach us, remember?"

"Oh, yeah…" She walked over to the stick I'd been using and swung it through a few experimental slices. "It's been a long time since we've done this."

"Yeah." I nodded, thinking back. Grandpa had started both of us when we were six. I'd studied under him for nearly ten years, until Dad and Mom split; Hannah had practiced with me for about six. I don't know if it was last week's attack in the alley, or a desire to remember my grandfather that had spurred me on, but I'd taken up practicing again.

I rolled my shoulders, remembering how sore my muscles had been for the first few days. They still remembered the motions, though, which surprised me a little. I guess you don't loose ten years of experience so easily.

"Hey, this archeology thing is today. I think I might go to it." I said, checking the time. Three O'clock. Plenty.

"Ok, see you later," Hanna answered. I stepped inside, pulling the screen door shut. She had picked up my piece of doweling, and was swinging it around enthusiastically.

"Hey, Dad?" I knocked on the studio door, quietly. He liked to know where we were going, but he also liked to be left in peace.

"Come in!" Came the muffled reply. I turned the handle and gently opened the door, stepping into the cool brightness of his studio. I carefully stepped around easels with half-finished pictures, and various partially cleared workspaces as I made my way through his comfortable clutter to where he was working.

"What's up?" He paused for a second, putting down his palette and giving me his full attention.

"I'm going to go to the library; there's an archeological display there that looks interesting."

"That sounds fine. Just be sure to get the lawn cut this week."

I nodded. "It's taken care of. What are you working on?"

He tilted the paper, so I could see more clearly.

"It's a train…see, it's coming down the tracks here, there's the snowplow…"

"Looks good."

And it did. Dad paints for children's books. He loves what he does, and he's good at it.

"Well, see you at supper."

"Yeah." I picked my way back out of the room, and closed the door quietly. Off to the library!

**:::::::::::::::::::::**

Supposedly, the library used to be the old Hyrule Castle. The royal residence was eventually moved, but the books stayed, and eventually expanded to take up the whole building. It's quite an impressive structure; right in the middle of downtown, it's surrounded by parks and gardens, an area of tranquility in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Hyrule City. I came in from the south, coasting my bike down the main roadway, angling for the big parking lot just to the side of the main building.

The castle isn't big, in comparison to some of the modern buildings in this city. But it's unique in its own way, built of huge limestone blocks quarried far to the south and carried here ages ago. Time has weathered it to a beautiful cream color, and the intricate carvings and tall towers give the whole thing a fairy-tale like feeling.

I studied the castle as I strolled easily down one of the garden paths, enjoying the smell of the late blooming lilacs. Normally they're over before school gets out.

At some point a façade had been built where the drawbridge used to be. I walked through the wide-open double doors, and into a hallway lit softly and highlighted with dark wood and golden metal. A small sigh escaped my lips; I love the library.

Maybe it's the feeling of undiscovered treasures, or the good memories I have with my mother and sister, but the rows of books and the smell of old paper is incredibly soothing to me. I wandered around the lobby for a while, looking at the new books, and perusing the bulletin boards. Eventually I found what I was looking for; directions to the archeology exhibit. This was the last day it would be open, and then it was going to be moved to another city. For now, though, it could be found on the second floor.

I took the Grand Stair, the one that the King and Queen would have used when they were in residence. The giant stone stairs swept gracefully up at one end of the hall, once used for feasting, now filled with shelves and desks. I paused for a second at the top, looked around, and quickly found a sign pointing me towards the correct room.

It was a room off the wide balcony that ran all the way around the Great Hall, several doors down from the stairs. They normally use these rooms for classes and stuff, but this one had been emptied out, cleaned meticulously, and then stuffed full of glass boxes and tiny spot lamps. I entered slowly, enjoying the thrill of discovery as my eyes swept back and forth across the textured darkness.

I took my time working my way through the exhibit; sure, I was here to see the Book of Mudora, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't enjoy myself, right? There was a lot of interesting stuff. Apparently, the archeologists had found someone's house, and the owner had been something of a scholar. Besides many priceless works of art, there were a surprising number of books.

The Book of Mudora was displayed prominently, centered in a large shadowbox and surrounded with notes about its history and the legends surround it. I stared at the cover, fascinated by the symbol shown there; some sort of bird, claws and wings shown clearly but head represented by three linked triangles, the symbol of the Triforce. Anchored to the glass by a few bolts, was a small tablet computer with a presentation on the interior of the book.

I casually flicked through it, curiously examining the oddly square cuneiform script used to write Ancient Hylian. The tablet claimed that this book was the most complete copy found to date, not only containing the ancient Hylian Histories, compiled by the scholar Raru, but also a section that was believed to be spells, or possibly religious apocrypha. This section was a bit more interesting than the pages of history, since it was written in a different script, an unfamiliar curling alphabet, that some thought was Raru's private cipher. There were notes on how much easier it must have been to write in, since it could be scribed with a pen, instead of a stylus, and how it may have been the pre-cursor to our modern letters.

Nifty. But why does Kirio want it?

Finally giving up, I sighed and turned away from the glass case, and slowly headed down the stairs. I spent a few minutes browsing through the fiction section before deciding on a book and heading towards the door.

_WEEEEEEEEEEE-AAAAAAAAAAAW, WEEEEEEEEEEEEE-AAAAAAAAAAAW!_

I jumped, nearly dropping my book as the siren came on. It echoed from the balcony above. I set down the book I'd been carrying, and walked to where I could see it better. Lights were flashing from the room with the archeological exhibit and as I watched, a dark figure dashed out of the room, vaulted the balcony, and sprinted towards the door, leaping from the top of one bookcase to the next.

The first glimpse I had of him made me think it was Kirio. I didn't get a good look at his face, but the size and running style seemed right. A second glance showed the book he carried was the Book of Mudora.

Alarms. Valuable property. Escapes.

I was running before he even cleared the railing.

He started closer to the museums exit, but I'm a fast runner. I was on his tail as he scrambled down the bookcase, and darted towards the double doors. Just to make it clear what was going on, I yelled "Stop, thief!" as we dashed through the hallway towards the exit. There were guards there, looking bemused and uncertain. One of them was closing the doors; the other was attempting to bar the way. The escapee didn't even slow down.

He did a hop-skip-jump, from a nearby chair to a handy ledge, and launched himself over the guard, stretching himself flat out in the air and curling up for the landing on the other side. He sprang to his feet and dashed on, leaving the guards gaping and staring, numb enough for me to slip around and continue pursuit. They followed a second later, one of them yelling into his radio, but it was useless; the thief and I outdistanced them easily.

I followed him to the parking lot, where he leapt into a waiting convertible and promptly sped off with a screech and burned rubber. I vaulted onto my bike, keying the ignition with one hand while I slipped my helmet on with the other, and sped off after him before I lost sight of the car.

His car was fast, but it didn't have anything like the acceleration my Roc custom cycle generated when I goosed the throttle. By the time he reached the end of the long, winding driveway, I was closing on him. He pulled out into the street, driving recklessly fast.

I matched him for several minutes. He tried hard to loose me, but didn't have any success. I had better acceleration AND better maneuverability. We were eventually caught in a stalemate; I couldn't get too close for fear of him swerving into me, but he couldn't shake me off, either.

It might have continued like that for quite a while if someone hadn't shot out his front tire.

The first warning I had was a puff of powdered concrete and shredded rubber, and then he lost control with a bang and a screech. I could see him spinning the wheel madly as he swerved back and forth across the road, trying to keep the car from sliding too far around and flipping over. I slammed on the brakes as soon as I realized what was happening, and turned off at the nearest street. I winced at the sound of a crash, but spun my bike and inched it back up the road so I could see what was happening.

The getaway car was stopped dead against one of the wrought-iron light posts, which was probably heavier than it. The man I'd chased had been wearing his seatbelt it seemed, since someone was cutting it off him and hauling him out of the car. He hung limp as the kidnapper snapped handcuffs on him and unceremoniously slung him in a fireman's carry. As he did, the hood fell away from the thief's face. I nodded grimly; it had been Kirio, just as I suspected. As the first guy was getting him out of the car, another guy was searching through it. Eventually, he stood up, holding a book; I was sure it was the Book of Mudora, even from a distance. He slipped it into a satchel, and both men headed back into the alley.

Follow? Not follow. Follow? Not follow. Stupid curiosity. I went.

The house I was next to had a thin strip of lawn between it and the street. I propped my bike up on its kickstand, and stepped behind the hedge, pulling my helmet off and setting it beside me. I had a clear view down the alley, and pretty decent cover.

Even though I thought myself safe from prying eyes, a shiver walked down my spine at what I saw. A squad of five men stood in a semi-circle, with a squat, dark jeep parked behind them. The one carrying Kirio had propped him up against the wall, and was slapping his face, apparently trying to bring him around.

Blind walked around the corner.

I almost split and ran right then. Stupid, stupid, stupid curiosity. She looked pretty today, too, her red hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was wearing the same black sweats as the rest of the group. I couldn't tell what she said, but it was an order. She waved her hand, and the men gathered around her scrambled to obey. They hopped in the jeep and pulled out of the alley, turning right and quickly disappearing down the empty road.

Blind stood still and watched Kirio. I sat motionless, watching Blind. Eventually, Kirio began to wake up. Blind did nothing until he tried to stand. Then she put a foot on his shoulder and pressed him back into the wall. Kirio said something. Blind replied. They talked for a minute.

What should I do? They didn't seem to be looking at me. I walked back to my motorbike, rolled it across the street, and set it up for a getaway. Then, I pulled on my helmet, set my back to the wall, and sidled along it until I could hear what was being said.

"…give it up! I've got the Book of Mudora, now. Soon I'll have all the artifacts. And when I do, not even the Sheikah will be able to stand against me. I'll crush them!" Blind's voice, quiet and low, was full of anger.

"Hah." That was Kirio's; he sounded disoriented and tired. "But that's not what it's about, is it? This is much more…personal than that."

"Shut. Up." There was a snick, like the sound a particularly expensive switchblade makes. "Do you know how much I lost because of you? I should put your eyes out here and now!"

Kirio screamed. It seemed like he was gritting his teeth, because it really wasn't that loud, but it dripped pain. It jerked my head up, and sent me spinning around the corner.

Kirio sat, his hands handcuffed, and stretched above his head. Blind's knife pinned them to the brick wall.

I reacted, dashing forward and taking the initiative instinctively. I reached Kirio before Blind even noticed me, wrapped my hand around the knife, and yanked it out. My hand came up, slashing for her in a split second.

She melted. I don't even know how else to describe it. One second she was there, the next she wasn't. She stood a few feet away from me, tawny eyes flashing as she evaluated at lightning speed.

_"You." _

She spat the word, even as I moved towards her. Even though I was wearing my helmet, it seemed she recognized me. She dodged again, at a disadvantage against the knife, and I pushed her back, trying to corner her against the wall. I marveled at how much a week of training had brought back; I was able to fight much more confidently, knowing what I was doing and why I was doing it.

What I was doing was fighting for my life.

Man, she was good! Even unarmed, she was pushing back so hard I was almost the one giving ground. And no chance she would be willing to pull her punches, either. She'd already given me half-dozen bruises, and I doubted I could beat her in stamina. I needed to end this, and quick; the only thing keeping her from destroying me easily was my advantage with the knife.

The fight ended as quickly and as unexpectedly as it started. I slipped, loosing my footing on a piece of garbage that had fallen out of the dumpster nearby. I regained my balance quickly, but a hole opened in my defense, and she darted through it.

I felt her hand clamp on my wrist like a steel band, and then yank me forward and smash my fingers against the nearby wall. I struggled, waiting for her to try again; when she tensed another go, I dropped the knife, twisted my hand around and broke her grip. I moved up and stepped inside her guard, even though she punched me viciously in the kidney nearly causing me to howl in pain. I grit my teeth, picked her up, and without thinking, tossed her into the dumpster.

Then I bolted.

I scooped up Kirio as I ran past; he was mumbling to himself and nursing his wounded hand. I dumped him unceremoniously over the saddle of my motorbike and hopped on. Just as I gunned the engine and pulled away from the curb, I glanced in my mirror to see Blind dash out of the mouth of the alley, her clothes ripped and dirty from the knife and the trash. She shook her fist and yelled something, but it was lost in the engine noise.

Apprehension in my heart I turned north, heading for Kirio's house.

**:::::::::::::::**

So, I have one more chapter that I might post before I go, especially if I get a few reviews; but it's in pretty rough shape, so I might not be able to. Either way, I'll be posting again by August, probably. Oh, and I already have an idea for my next story! So I'll be able to go on from here.


	5. The Deeper World

**Forward**

So, chapters seem to be getting longer. Anyways, thought I'd post this since I'm around the internet for a bit this week. Dunno when I'll post next. Oh, I've already got ideas for a sequel.

EDIT: I've come back to this chapter, and changed a bit in the beginning, after I realized that the handcuffs just kinda disappeared. Pyro out.

**The Deeper World**

**:::::::::::::::**

I braked hard, swerving into the driveway of Kirio's house. I snapped the kickstand down, and helped Kirio off the bike. He seemed to be doing OK, although his hand obviously pained him; he'd managed to recover enough during the ride to prevent me from stopping at the hospital emergency room.

I carefully rolled my bike out of sight behind the house as he fumbled his keys out and unlocked the door.

"Dude, liquid band-aid isn't going to cut it this time." I warned him as he headed into the bathroom.

"Go get me the bolt cutters from the garage." He said, distinctly but slowly. "They're hanging on the wall near the door."

By the time I got back, he was standing in the kitchen with a bottle the size of my thumb, filled with red liquid, and bandage material sitting on the counter. I helped him cut the handcuffs off, and he handed me the bottle. I popped the rubber stopper out, and sniffed. It looked like blood, but it gave off a fresh, almost woodlands scent with a strong acrid undertone. He carefully cleaned out the cut in the kitchen sink, removing as much of the dried blood and scabbing as he could; I watched, half curious and half horrified. He'd undone what little clotting had taken place, and his hand was bleeding liberally. He held out his other hand for the medicine.

I placed the phial in his palm, and watched with surprise has he up-ended it over the cut. It seemed to have some sort of styptic in it, because the blood stopped dripping almost immediately. He slapped a wad of gauze on it, and held it out to me.

"Would you bandage this please?" he gestured to stuff he'd set out. I carefully tied it around his hand, making sure the dressing was pressing firmly on each side.

"Kirio, I realize you didn't want to go to the emergency room but you really ought to have your hand looked at by a professional. That wound isn't something first-aid can take care of." I said, shaking my head as he carefully cleaned blood off his hands and rinsed the sink.

"It'll be fine." He replied. "Look, it didn't even damage the tendons." He flexed his fingers once, in demonstration. "I'll have someone look at it later. For now, you need to get out of here."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Go home. Pretend this never happened."

"What?!" I stopped for a second, a mixture of anger and confusion choking me up. "You can't just toss me out! I saved your life!" I stepped forwards, glaring straight at him. "Twice!"

"No, you didn't. I had everything under control the first time you interfered with me, and the second time…Blind wouldn't…of course she wouldn't have killed me!" His voice trailed off.

"Even if she didn't kill you, she was threatening to put your eyes out! Don't you feel any gratitude? What's UP with you?" I yelled, slamming a fist down on the counter and rattling the cupboards.

Phreeeee, Phreeeee…

Like the chirping of a cricket, the vibration of my phone cut through the heavy quiet. I yanked it out of my pocket, and snapped it open.

"Hello, this is Sein."

"Hello, Sein." Blind's voice was soft, but oozed anger.

"Blind!"

Kirio looked up sharply; his eyes filled with…hope? I couldn't tell. Blind started talking again.

"Listen to me." Her voice demanded my full attention. "I don't know why you've involved yourself, but let me promise you this. I'm going to make you sorry you did. You've made a mistake helping Kirio, and you're going to know exactly how big of one it is when I find you. Watch your back, because I'm after you!" There was a click as she cut off the connection, and I lowered my hand, shaken.

"What did she want?"

"She threatened me. What have I gotten myself _into?_"

Kirio chewed his lip for a second, and then moved decisively.

"Listen, we need to get out of here." He walked out into the kitchen, and grabbed a backpack out of one of the cupboards. I watched as he swept all the junk off the kitchen table into it, and added a few miscellaneous items from around the room. He stepped into a bedroom, and came out with another bag.

"Can you give me one more lift on your motorbike?"

I nodded, slowly.

"What are you planning?"

"I need to get out of here. I've used this house for too long. Can you take me to the corner of Briar and Hart?"

"Yeah, I know where that is."

"Then let's go. But, if you would, push your bike away from the house and then give me a minute."

I nodded, and walked out, Kirio following right behind me. I rolled my bike to the end of the driveway, and looked back at the house. Kirio was doing something weird; he had something clasped in his right hand. It was a golden-colored disk, about the diameter of a soda can, but only an inch thick; it gleamed richly in the afternoon light. As I watched him, he held it out at arms length and stood stock still long enough that I began to feel uncomfortable.

Suddenly, flame burst out of the house. It was like a firebomb had gone off, but all over the building. Sheets of flame blossomed on the walls, licking and growing over the entire structure until the whole thing was wrapped in fire. Kirio staggered as if he'd been hit, turned slowly and climbed onto the back of the bike.

"The hell you do?"

"Later. Get us out of here."

I nodded, spinning the engine up and slipping the clutch. For the second time that day, I drove a getaway.

**::::::::::::::::::::**

I parked in the road near Briar, and walked Kirio to the corner. When we got close, a short woman who'd been sitting at the bus stop got up and walked briskly over to us, relief evident on her face.

"Kirio, you made it! What happened?"

"Long story. Byrna, this is Sein. Sein, Byrna." Byrna shook my hand, brushing her long brown hair away from her eyes long enough to give me pleasant smile.

"Sein, thanks for your help." Kirio said, holding out his hand.

"Your welcome." I shook it.

We all stood there for a second. I think they were probably waiting for me to leave. Kirio coughed awkwardly, and they turned, walking away from me.

I followed them.

After a few seconds, Kirio turned around, to face me again.

"What do you want? Why are you following us?"

"Answers," I snapped. I was sick of his disrespect, and determined to force something out of him. After all I'd done for him, he'd tried to pretend that there was nothing between us! I wanted more than a thank you! Besides, I was pretty curious by now.

"Sein, wake up! This is not something you want to be involved in!" Kirio grated, his words harsh.

"Get real, Kirio, I'm already involved! Blind just called and threatened me! I'm pretty much in over my head anyways!" I yelled back, not caring who heard me. Byrna winced, and Kirio looked taken aback. "Anyways, I can tell you where she took it."

That got him. He was getting ready to say something else, but his mouth snapped shut when I said that. He started at me for a second, his face flat.

"Where Blind took the Book of Mudora?"

"What else?"

"How?"

"You remember the other week, when we…met? In that alley?"

"Not likely to forget it."

"I lost my phone there. I'd gotten it out to call the cops, but when that guy hit my with his blackjack, I dropped it. I went back and looked for it later, but it was gone. They must have picked it up after the fight."

Kirio nodded. I could tell he was beginning to see where I was going with this; he was getting a bit exited.

"Anyways, I did a location search on it that night, from my laptop. I wrote the location down and put it in my wallet so I wouldn't lose it, planning to call the cops the next day, but Blind contacted me and gave it back."

I pulled out my wallet, and extracted the piece of paper.

"This has the address written on it. I'll give it to you if you answer all my questions."

Kirio glanced at Byrna.

"We need to talk about this for a second."

"Fine." I waited as they turned their backs and walked a few steps away. Then, moving quickly, I memorized the address and whipped out my cigarette lighter. I wouldn't put it past Kirio to attempt to steal the paper. It burned cleanly, crumpling into ash. I ground what was left of it under my foot as it fell to the ground.

My precautions weren't for nothing. Kirio and Byrna seemed to reach some sort of an agreement. They turned and walked back.

"I'm sorry, Sein, but-" Kirio started speaking, and then kicked me in head. Or tried to. I had no illusions about my chances of defeating Kirio in unarmed combat; the man was much better than me. But I could dodge him, I figured. And at least I had the consolation of knowing he wasn't trying to kill me. Probably.

I watched the bottom of his foot sail past my face, and tried to think of what I should do. Run? But that would mean giving up on my answers; and although I already regretted involving myself with Kirio and Blind, I was in over my head by now. And I was curious. Extremely curious. What was all this about? I'd lived in Kakariko my entire life, but the past week…it was like picking up a book, and realizing that you'd only been reading every-other page. I felt like there was a whole world here I'd been missing. An _interesting_ world, where people fought for their beliefs with their bodies on the line, and their worries were more urgent than trying to get a hold of the newest gadget, or get to the most recent film.

I wanted to be a part of it.

Screw it all. I'm going to kick the _shit_ out of this pompous little ass that I've saved twice. He won't give me any answers? Fine. I'll _beat_ them out of him. Unarmed combat? Not a chance. But _armed_ combat…that I might be able to pull off.

I glanced around, looking for a weapon. Aha! Behind me, off to the right, was a birdhouse hung from a pole standing in someone's garden. I jumped backwards, giving ground before Kirio's flurry of kicks. Waiting for an opportune moment, I almost let one of them connect, and then blocked it instead of dodging, absorbing the force of the blow, and then I leaned forward and gave him a solid push, throwing him off balance.

It only took him a second to recover, but I dashed backwards, wrapped my hands around the pole, and yanked it out of the ground. Kirio dashed at me, but I snapped the wood over my knee, and turned the splintered end towards him.

Now let's see how you like a taste of me.

My weapon wasn't the best, but it was better than the knife I'd used on Blind, earlier. It was an inch and a half thick and maybe three feet long; just about the right length.

I stepped forward, and pressed the attack.

Kirio was forced to step up his game as I came at him. Before, his kicks had given him an advantage in range, but now we were more evenly matched. I held back for a second, simply smashing his foot aside whenever he attempted to kick me. Then I pushed. My 'sword' spun and darted, bashing him a half dozen times. I forced him to defend, and then pushed through that defense. I grinned, fierce and proud. I hadn't fought this well in years. I tapped him again and again; leaving a dozen bruises, and finally smacking him so hard on head he staggered and lost his balance. I kicked his feet out from under him and knelt by his side, pinning his near hand with my knee and pressing the end of my pole against his throat.

"Kirio, you've got some nerve attempting to knock me out. I don't like you much, and I sure as hell don't trust you. But I'm sorry to say that it wouldn't have done you any good, even if you did. While you and Byrna were talking, I burnt that piece of paper. The only way you're going to find out where that book is, is by talking. The only place that address is right now is here." I tapped my temple, grinning nastily. I pushed down on my staff a bit more, twisting the end, before letting up and standing. "And don't ever try to double-cross me again. Next time, I leave you with more than bruises."

He stood slowly, surprise and chagrin in his face, but oddly, no anger.

"Byrna, I agree. This is probably him."

"I told you, didn't I?" Byrna said, nodding firmly. "He's got the hallmarks. And that sword style! That's not traditional martial arts, but something much more suited to the Deeper World. I wonder how it was kept silent all these years…"

"What are you talking about?" I said, angry again. "Dammit, people, don't talk like I'm not here! I! want! ANSWERS!"

"And you'll have them." Kirio looked straight at me as he talked. "Sein, I apologize for attacking you, but we need to verify something. I'm sorry." He held out his hand.

Honestly? He's apologizing?

I looked into his eyes. He didn't seem to be lying. I gingerly took his hand, and shook it once.

"Well, I'll forgive you. But if you try and pull that again…"

"Don't worry." He smiled, baring his teeth in an expression that was more vicious than glad. "Next time, I'll bring my own weapon. You might find it a bit more difficult, then."

"Hah!" I stilled a rush of…excitement? Yeah, I would like to fight him again. I would like that very much. "Well, I'll be ready for you when you do."

"Good. Now, let's find someplace to talk. Sein, would you like some coffee?"

Disarmed by the sudden normality of his invitation, I simply nodded.

"OK, there's a coffee shop a few blocks down the street. Let's head there." Byrna offered, turning to lead the way.

**::::::::::::::::::::**

The shop was small and snug, a cafe and bookshop all in one. The sign swung in the evening breeze. I ordered a latte with orange and chocolate, and Kirio bought a Danish to split. We sat down in one of small booths.

If I hadn't known better, this might have been something completely normal.

"First off," Kirio said around a mouthful of pastry, "Is a little background. When I talked to you at my house, I mentioned three things. The Gerudo, the Sheikah, and the Deeper World. We need to talk about the last one first."

"You see," Byrna said, picking up where he'd left off. "There's a lot more going on here than you might expect. To be perfectly frank, there's a war going on in Hyrule."

"What we call the Deeper World," Kirio said, resuming narration as he swallowed his pastry, "Is actually composed of people who understand this war, why it's happening, and how it affects them. Needless to say, it's a bit more complicated than that, but it can basically be summed up as people who have one thing in common."

"And what's that?" I asked, sipping my coffee. It was good, and hot. And I was finally relaxing after several hours of non-stop action. I glanced outside; it was starting to get dark.

"Magic." Byrna said it almost carelessly. I nearly dropped my cup.

"What? Are you _serious_?"

Kirio sighed. "We're serious." He held out his hand, showing me the gauze that I'd wrapped around it as a bandage. Then, pulling a small knife out of his pocket, he slit the cloth, and pulled it away from the skin.

The cut was gone.

Not just scabbed over, or sealed together, but _gone._ That had been a hole all the way through, from the back to the palm, easily two inches long and ragged all around the edges! All that was left was a slight pinkness where it had been. I reached out and prodded the skin. It felt whole. Kirio didn't even wince.

"What…" I gasped, unable to form a coherent question. Is this for real? _Magic?_ Like something out of the novels my sister reads? Well, I read them too, I guess. But…seriously! Incredible. Absolutely incredible. And yet here it is. His hand was slashed! I pulled the knife out myself. No modern medicine could heal like that.

"Still don't believe me?" Kirio's voice was soft. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the golden medallion he'd been holding when he burned his house down.

"Take a look at this."

I took it from him, my hand thumping into the table as the full weight of it pressed down. This thing was solid gold! Although small, it easily weighed several pounds.

"That, is magic. Plentiful, strong, concentrated. It's what I used to burn down the safe house. No matches, no timers; you watched. You see, Sein, the Deeper world isn't some sort of club, or secret society. We guard and maintain ancient traditions. We are the holders of what little power is left from the days of old. This, however, is new."

He reached out, and I gave the golden disk back to him.

"Or rather, something new again. This was recently re-discovered. It's one of many things that have come to be called Artifacts by the Deeper."

"OK, wait a second." I cut in. "You're saying that these people, the…citizens…of the deeper world, have been using magic for _years_, and no-one ever noticed?"

"Not quite. Rather, I'd say that the only people who were in a position to notice, were those who were already in the deeper world." Byrna interjected.

"That's right." Kirio agreed. "See, it's really not too much different from any other organized subculture, like musicians. They have their own places to meet, infamous people and heroes. If you become a musician, you naturally gravitate towards these places, for the same reasons others do. Except, in our case, we have a very good idea who's going to be in, and who's going to be out. This is why you," He pointed a finger at me, "Are such a surprise."

"A surprise?"

"Yeah. I mean, if you just happened to be at the wrong place and the wrong time, that would be one thing. You would have seen me beat up some guys, and that would have been it. However, you're more than that. You've got crazy sword skills, dude. What you were using out there," he waved towards the window, "Wasn't anything normal. I've never seen a sword technique quite like it. It's powerful enough, and you're good enough, that you _should_ be a citizen of the deeper world."

"But that's definitely not magic." I protested.

"True." Kirio said. "But it's powerful. Think of it like this; the Deeper World exists to police and contain any force that's too much for our current systems. Like magic. The government couldn't deal with or regulate magic in any way. It's completely out of their realm. The same is true for certain martial arts. My fighting style, for example, is from the Deeper World. It's called Steel Feet of Pegasus. It's versatile and vicious enough that I can take on two or three armed men. But I can't stand up to you. You're something else. Something that belongs where people with similar skills can keep an eye on you."

"But," Byrna said, "You're not where you should be. You see, when the world…lost its magic, the Deeper World was formed by those who didn't forget."

"Wait, wait. Lost its magic?" I was really getting confused, now.

"Yes." Byrna continued. "About five hundred years ago, the world changed. Magic, which had previously been a significant force in everyday life, suddenly faded. I won't say it disappeared, but it weakened considerably. Before that, people might bump into evidence of it fairly often. After 'The Fade', as it's called, it became weak. What was once common knowledge, although rarely understood, slowly became legend, and then myth. Now, things like the Gorons or the Zoras are fairy tales, at best."

"So, hold on a second. What you're saying is that, back in the day, magic was common." I gestured with my coffee cup, as if to wave away the nebulous construct they were describing.

"Yeah, basically." Kirio replied.

"Then, at some point, a lot of it, just, disappeared? Poof?"

"Right."

"And after that, not only did most people forget about it, but some people didn't. Instead, they formed a club, and didn't tell anyone else? And now I'm being invited to join?"

"Well, close. Honestly, you really should already _be_ in the deeper world. Everything about you screams it. The way you move and fight, I mean, even the way you talk!" Kirio exclaimed, waving his latte at me, and accidentally splashing coffee on the table. "Oops." He grabbed a napkin and started to soak it up.

"But back to what we were talking about before," Byrna said. "There's a war on. Normally, the Deeper World is pretty peaceful. Sure, there are power struggles nonstop, but most of the time it's economic maneuvering, or intrigue. Once or twice, assassination. But there's never been people fighting in the streets before. Until these things started to show up." She held up the medallion.

"As was said, we call them Artifacts. They're pieces of history, items that were once used to cast spells, and other stuff. They have various effects; this one happens to have a very strong affinity to heat." She closed her hand over it and concentrated, the same way Kirio had in front of his house. Suddenly, a flame winked into existence. It was no bigger than a candle flame, but it hovered in the air about an inch above her hand, glimmering and shining.

I slowly held my hand out to it, feeling the warmth. I passed my hand under it, and around it, eventually cupping the flame in my fingers. It seemed to be honestly floating in the air. I tried to blow it out, but it merely streamed in the wind, and then resumed its steady burn.

"Damn." Seemed pretty magical to me. I held out my hand, and Byrna placed the medallion in my palm, letting the flame wink out. I wrapped my fingers around it like I'd seen her do and closed my eyes, imagining a flame hovering above my hand. I pictured the light, gleaming off the mugs, and the smell, wafting slowly towards the ceiling. I imagined the heat warming my wrist.

Twin gasps cause me to open my eyes. Just above my hand, a flame floated. It hovered for a second, and then winked out.

"Hah." Byrna sounded shaken. "You wanted proof?"

Kirio nodded, slowly. "Listen, Sein. There's something else we wanted to talk to you about. I told you that when I attacked you out there, I wasn't seriously trying to hurt you. Instead, I wanted to test who you were. You see, we think that these Artifacts are a sign that, for whatever reason, magic is beginning to return. And if that happens, there are other things than these items that should start appearing. There are _people,_ too."

"What do you mean?"

"There were people, or maybe it would be better to call them archetypes; characters, if you will, who have re-occurred throughout history. They are also in our legends. Villains, like Vaati, or Gannondorf Dragmire. Princess Zelda. And, the Hero in Green. They weren't the same person each time, but they did share a lot of characteristics. Some people think that they were re-incarnated, or their magic re-appeared. We do. We're expecting them to begin appearing again. Especially the Hero."

"The…Hero?" I swallowed a sip of coffee, in an attempt to soothe my suddenly aching throat. "You mean, the Hero of Time?"

"Yes, some called him that. Although many Deep scholars consider the Hero of Time to be only one of at least four or five different Heroes." Kirio agreed.

"OK. So?"

"We think…you might be incarnating him."

_"What?!"_

I don't know WHAT I'd expected him to say, but that had NOT been it. I turned my head away from the table and coughed, as my throat tightened even more painfully. It felt like it was being crushed.

"I know it sounds impossible," Byrna said, "But think about it. You know an ancient sword technique, and you're able to use it very effectively. I don't know if the magic that formed the Hero has re-shaped itself yet, but destiny-"

My chair fell over as I jolted to my feet. I slammed my cup down on the table, and stood there for a second, the two of them shocked into silence.

"I'm done." I said, fighting against a tightening in my chest. My heart was beating fast, and I was breathing heavily. "The house you're looking for is 1562 Deckner. My phone was there for eight hours." I turned and walked away from the table, pausing only to snatch up my motorbike helmet.

"Wait, Sein!" Kirio's hand caught my shoulder, but I shrugged him off, and whirled to face him.

"I don't want to hear about destiny, and I don't want to hear about re-incarnation! You wanted me out of this. You fought to make me leave! Now you've got your wish! Shut up, sit down, and be happy!"

His eyes glinted, anger sparking in their depths.

"You fool! You don't even know what you're talking about!" He spat back, his voice just as loud as mine. "You think this is a joke? That we're playing games? We're serious! Deadly serious!"

I ignored him, turning back to the door, striding out and slamming it behind me.

A good ride would calm me down.

**::::::::::::::::::**


	6. The Wolf

**Forward**

This story is officially revived! I've written lots ahead, but I'm going to go back to posting one chapter a week. Stay tuned for more. I'm pretty happy with how its turning out, so I hope you guys enjoy it, even if it gets a little weird! I had to make an edit in the last chapter; check it out if you're interested. It's not super big, though. I just had to correct a detail I'd messed up between chapters.

**The Wolf**

**:::::::::::::::::**

I rode the sun down, cruising along the edge of Lake Hylia. I watched the waves flame red, beautiful and wild. When I got home it was dark and the lights were off in both my Dad's study and in Hannah's room.

The front door creaked as I eased into the house. I popped the fridge open and scrounged a few leftovers, scooping some spaghetti onto a plate and throwing it into the microwave, and pouring myself a glass of milk. My mind was still racing as I sat down, but for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to think over what Kirio and Byrna had said. When I did, my throat tightened, and I found myself short of breath. The idea that I might be associated with this…Deeper World _scared_ me, viscerally. I finished the last of my spaghetti, rinsed the plate, slipped it in the dishwasher and headed upstairs.

Something made me pause as I walked down the hall. I stood for a second, and looked around. Nothing seemed different, but I still felt edgy. I don't know what warned me, but instead of simply walking into my room as I'd been about to I twisted the door handle and pushed, letting it swing open and stepping to the side.

Nothing.

I stood there for a moment, until I heard a very gentle scrape. It might have been anything, but it came from my room. At that, my blood ran cold. An awful certainty gripped me. Someone was waiting for me. An ambush. In my house. In my _room._ My heart began to race; I grit my teeth, equal parts rage and terror coursing through my veins. I almost froze in place, but something kicked me into action; for the third time today, I was being forced to fight. I was going to give a good account. I instantly whirled around the door frame and flicked the light on, snatching up the practice sword I'd left leaning next to the door. I snapped it into a guard and attempted to take stock of the situation.

Two women, clothed in black, blinked as the light hit their eyes. I had an instants advantage, and I took it, lunging across the room. My wooden sword jabbed the first one in the solar plexus. She doubled over with a gasp, and the second one whipped something at me. I barely managed to bring my blade around to bat it aside before I dashed towards her; but as I was about to, something sharp jabbed into my thigh; the impact and the pain caused me to trip and I fell, half on my bed.

Three. There had been three.

Blind was standing behind my door. A dart with red feathers was sticking in my leg. I struggled to rise, gasping, but whatever she had injected me with numbed my leg and rapidly spread through my body. A wave of helpless terror crashed over me, and then I was sinking into blackness, my vision fading quickly.

**::::::::::::::::::::::**

The first thing I noticed after I woke up, coughing, was that someone had blindfolded me.

I was sitting, with rough cloth locking my eyes closed, on what felt like a molded plastic chair; the kind you might find in a gymnasium or out on a field arranged in ranks for a speech. I gradually discovered that my feet were tied snugly to the legs, and my hands were fastened behind my back. These things appeared out of the fog clouding my mind slowly, like something buried under sand is revealed as the dust blows away.

The air was cold, and smelled of air conditioning.

I stretched as best I could, trying to get back feeling in my limbs. I grunted in pain; my muscles ached. As soon as I regained sensation I began pulling against my bindings, but they were too tight to get out of easily. From the lack of echo, I was in a small room. As I struggled, I felt something rub against my leg. My pockets still had my things in them! I felt a surge of hope, as I realized my pocketknife might still be there.

I carefully stood, trying not to fall over, and attempted to reach my pockets. It was tricky with my hands tied behind my back, but I twisted as far as I could and tugged on my belt loops, pulling my pants around until I could grab the fabric of the pocket. Then, I carefully gathered up the material until I could reach the bottom. Yes! It was there! I slipped the two-inch knife out and palmed it. I was about to try working it open when I heard voices. It sounded like two people were coming towards the room. I slowly slid the knife into the back of my pants, clipping it to my waistband, and sat down. I began twisting my hands, as if I was trying to work the bindings free.

The door opened, and I heard people walk in. One of them stepped towards me, and I tensed. All they did, however, was tug the blindfold up off my eyes.

For the second time, I took stock of my surroundings. A small room, fluorescent lights illuminating it starkly. The walls were cinder-brick painted tan, and flat blue carpet covered the floor. The harsh yellow of dirty streetlights filtered in through windows high on the walls, leaking down from street level through light wells. A small table standing to one side held an unopened bottle of water and a baby monitor; crude, but effective. They must have heard me wake up.

Blind stood in front of me, with two of her henchmen.

We locked gazes for a second, neither speaking. She looked contemptuous, a slight sneer played around her dark lips; her auburn hair spilling over her shoulders. Her neat clothes contrasted starkly with my torn and dirty accoutrements.

I struggle to make sense of my emotions. Anger slowly surges around a cold stone of fear, mixed with excitement and apprehension. My knife digs into my back; I need to be ready. If I'm going to escape, I need to grasp the first chance.

"How did you find me?" My voice was surprisingly smooth, but my throat tightens unexpectedly, and I start coughing again.

"Idiot." Blind's voice was almost kind. "Can't you guess? Don't you remember me calling you?"

"But…" I thought back to the threats she'd made, and then realized that she meant before, when she was returning my phone. Of course. She'd taken my home phone number out of my cell. It would have been child's play to find my house; anyone with internet could have done a reverse look-up. I groaned, cursing my own stupidity. Tired, angry, and above all _careless,_ I'd accepted the implication in her nebulous threats, that she didn't know where I lived, and I'd gone home, walking into her trap like a blind fool.

"Now, now, don't be too hard on yourself. You did manage to throw quite a wrench into my plans when you showed up to help Kirio the other day." She picked up the bottle of water, and looked at it speculatively for a second. "Want a drink?"

My stomach rolled, and I shook my head. I was pretty sure I'd puke if I tried to swallow anything.

"Fine." She twisted the top off, and took a sip. "So, here's what's going on." Her voice was taut now, businesslike. "You're my prisoner. I'm going to use you as collateral against Kirio. He's going to give me back the medallion, and you will be free to go. Understand? Don't interfere or do anything stupid and you'll be released unharmed."

I nodded slowly. For some reason, I believed her. I'd fought her the other day, and the impression I'd come away with was that she was straightforward and honest.

"Normally, an ordinary citizen would be considered off-limits, but you, for whatever stupid reasons, have decided to ally yourself with that traitor. Because of that, you're fair game."

"What," I asked carefully, "Is this all about? What are you two so…worked up over?"

"Hah." She eyed me speculatively. "For someone who told me they really don't want to be involved, you sure are nosy."

"Would you believe me if I told you that this was all coincidence?" I managed a weak smile.

"You know, that's what he said, too. Of course, I caught him red-handed. It comes down to this. I told you earlier that he'd stolen something from the Gerudo, right? Well, it was the Fire Medallion, an artifact I was personally responsible for. I guess I let him get too near it because I trusted him, due to our past association. It turned out he'd changed more than I'd imagined. Trust is not a mistake I'll make with him again."

Suddenly, the sound of running feet interrupted us.

"Blind!" Another man, dressed in dark clothes, edged into the room. "We're under assault; a patrol reported being attacked, right before we lost contact with them. It must be Kirio, and maybe Byrna, too!" Blind's gaze snapped towards me.

"What did you do?" She hissed.

"Hah." I laughed, weakly. "1562 Deckner. I'm not the only one to make a mistake with my cell phone."

"_Damn!_" She stepped forward, and for a second I thought she was going to hit me. "David, cover him." One of her goons pulled out a pistol, and leveled it at me. "Don't think they're afraid to shoot. Open your mouth; I'm going to gag you." Aware of the gun, I complied. Blind gagged me while her second goon reached down and cut the ties holding my feet to the chair legs. She took the gun from David and waved it at me. "Get up. You're in front." I walked towards the door. "Take a right. If you try anything, I'll shoot you. Maybe in the leg, maybe not. Now _move._"

It seemed that the 'house' we were in was larger than I'd expected; we walked quickly through nondescript hallways for half a minute before coming out into a surprisingly large room. This was as drably decorated as the other, but had no windows. It was large, at least fifty feet square with one entrance behind us and another directly across the room, sealed with a plain wooden door. Around the edges of the room were an assortment of bulky plastic chests and flimsy metal shelving. It looked like nothing so much as a storage unit, filled with a bewildering assortment of what seemed to be… junk. Rocks, piles of cloth, various unidentifiable chunks of machinery, stacks of paper, all sorts of stuff. Just to the side of the door we had entered through, though, was a table on which sat the Book of Mudora, something that resembled a bejeweled boomerang, and a sword. What a sword!

As my weapon of choice it grabbed me not only as a potential tool for escape, but as a fantastic work of craft. It was beautifully made, an arming sword with a hand-and-a-half grip. It swept from a gently rounded point down to a sturdy hilt, decorated only with a simple triangular pattern just above the wing-shaped crosspiece. The only thing that struck me as incongruous was how black it was. Its matte coloring seemed to absorb all light. It almost looked like it had been oxide-coated, but no traditional sword smith would have been able to do that, and everything about this sword seemed to say _old_. The hilt was worn black leather, and the blade's edge, which was the only silver that could be seen on it besides the triangular embossing, had a few small pits and other evidence of wear. Someone had recently spent time caring for it, but it hadn't always been well preserved.

A gun barrel stabbed me in the back, awakening me from my reverie. I took an involuntary step forward, moving out of the doorway where I'd frozen.

"So, you like our treasure room?" Blind's voice was amused, but with an undercurrent of tension. "Fine, but get out of the doorway. You're going to spend a bit of time here."

The four of them moved out into the room. Blind picked up the Book of Mudora, and directed two of her henchmen to stand in the corners of the room nearest the other door and to cover it with their guns. I was placed, with the third goon covering me, behind a shelf piled full of cloth. She positioned herself behind a filing cabinet halfway up the wall and began flipping through the Book of Mudora.

For a few minutes, there was no movement or sound in the room besides our breathing. I zoned out, allowing my gaze to wander back to the black sword. It drew me like a magnet; my palms itched, sweating from my desire to pick it up and check its balance, to swing it through a few experimental moves. I imagined its weight; it would be perfect, a lethal weapon in my hands. I imagined wielding it; it would slice through defenses, stab past guards. I would be unstoppable.

I twitched my eyebrow, as a drop of sweat ran down my forehead into my eye. Was it warmer in here? My attention was drawn to Blind; she was crouching now, all of her concentration focused on the Book of Mudora. She seemed to be muttering something. I couldn't tell what it was, but the sound of her voice made me shiver in fear. What was she doing? It seemed as if waves of pressure were rolling off of her, disturbing the still air of the basement. Something inside of me was shivering in terror. In my eyes, she seemed to be growing bigger; my vision was almost tunneling, as I focused more and more on her slim figure. More sweat dripped on my body, and I realized that this was a visceral reaction. My grandfather, when he'd taught me sword fighting, had talked about intimidation and how it was comprised of a thousand subliminal cues that would tell you if you were facing a strong opponent. This must have been what he was talking about; an unreasoning fear that would trigger either fight or flight.

The latter. I wanted the latter. I was mildly surprised, a tendril of astonishment snaking past the fear, that I really did want to fight her. I wanted to test my reactions and training, sword flying, against this fear that threatened to overcome me. I'd never considered myself a coward, but this courage seemed almost foolhardy to me. I tried to calm myself, tearing my eyes off of her, and forcing calm breaths. The feelings subsided once I settled my gaze back on the sword, but I could still feel the pressure she was exerting. It seemed to be growing, pressing into the side of my face even though I wasn't watching her.

_Thumpthumpthumpthumpthump…_

A sound from the hallway drew some of my attention off of her. It sounded like footsteps, but they came with the rapidity of a machine gun. I turned my head back to the door, sliding my gaze past Blind and peering between two piles of cloth just in time to see Kirio blast into the room. The door exploded into a million scattering splinters as he sailed through gracefully, legs extended in a flying kick. He spun in midair, bringing his legs back under him, and hit the ground running.

_Thumpthumpthump…_

Fast! He was _blindingly_ fast! His feet flashed as he dashed, first for one gunman and then the other, disabling them even as they opened fire; a line of red-feathered darts splattered onto the wall behind him as he crossed and re-crossed the room in a split second. I barely had time to take in the fact that he'd single-handedly reversed the ambush before Blind stood, and spoke.

The words sounded like nonsense, or maybe some obscure language. Her voice boomed unnaturally, resonating oddly, as if it was being distorted by layers of moving air between her and I. Although the meaning was hidden, her words were loaded with power and the effects were immediate.

_**THOOOOM.**_

The Book of Mudora flashed brilliantly, blindingly, and the pressure that had been building around her exploded. It was an intangible shock wave, something that pushed hard against my mind, but brushed harmlessly past my body.

_Is this magic?_ The thought tickled the back of my brain as I stood, blinking, trying to re-gather my faculties. Kirio, it seemed, was affected much more strongly than I; he collapsed, the momentum from his headlong dash sending him sliding painfully across the floor. He pushed himself up groggily, struggling to regain his feet. As he did, I noticed that he was wearing an odd pair of boots. They were made from soft leather, with a white wing motif stitched onto the side. They seemed to give off the same sort of pressure Blind had been emitting. As Kirio scrambled to his feet, he kicked once against the floor, hard, and I gasped as he accelerated. In a split second, he went from halfway-kneeling to halfway across the room. My joy was short-lived, however, as Blind took another step forward, and her magical power flashed out again. This time it hit him harder, knocking Kirio backwards; I winced, watching him fly through the air; he hit the floor hard, and bounced, laying still. Blind stepped forward confidently.

It seemed like the fight was nearly over. I almost gave up hope. Just as I was about to despair, however, the handle on the ruined door twisted, and Byrna pushed it open. As she did, I tore my attention away from the fight, and forced myself to assess the situation around me. At the front of the room, the two guards Kirio had taken out were lying still. They didn't seem dead, but they were definitely incapacitated. I realized that the guard behind me wasn't making any noise, and hadn't since Blind…cast her spell? Well, whatever she'd done. I risked a glance backwards, and was surprised to find him crumpled on the floor, apparently out cold. I guess that shock wave had affected him more than me.

Suddenly, my adrenaline surged. Here was my opportunity for escape! My mind started racing. Moving quickly, I slid my pocket knife out of my waistband, and carefully felt at the rope binding my wrists. Moving as swiftly as I dared, I snapped the blade open and attempted to work it between the cords. It was difficult maneuvering the blade with my hands tied together, but I was able to feel the strands part slowly, releasing the pressure on my wrists.

As I worked, I watched the fight, keeping one eye on my sleeping guard, and one on Byrna and Blind.

Byrna, it seemed, fought with a staff. She was swinging it rapidly, a flurry of strikes that seemed impossibly fast but was still slower than Kirio had been moving a second ago. Blind, however, was warding her off without even moving her hands; she grasped the Book of Mudora firmly, and whenever Blind struck, she simply glanced at the staff and grunted. The book flashed, and the staff was deflected. For some reason, she wasn't hitting Byrna nearly as hard as she'd hit Kirio; maybe she was conserving her strength? Or maybe she'd been using Kirio's speed against him?

I put the fight out of my mind as the rope parted. I almost squeaked with excitement, but forced myself to be calm as I pocketed the knife. Moving slowly but smoothly so as not to draw the attention of either Blind or Byrna, I worked my way around the perimeter of the room, attempting to keep shelves or cabinets between me and the fight as I made my way towards that beautiful, beautiful sword. Finally I was standing beside the table. I glanced back at the fight; Byrna, it seemed, was tiring, her strokes coming more slowly. Blind was also slowing her incantations, lulling her into a false sense of security, trying to trap her into a rhythmic attack. As soon as that happened, the fight would be over. I braced myself, and grabbed the sword, intending to dash for the fight and throw myself into it.

What I did NOT expect, was a flare of yellow fire. Pain shot up my arm as my hand was engulfed in ocher flame. I attempted to drop the blade, but found myself unable to loosen my grip.

"GGGrrrroowllll…"

I jerked, convulsing; caught between the desire to drop the sword, and to spring into defense. I carefully lifted the blade, ignoring the burning pain in my hand, and turned to face my worst nightmare.

There, standing behind me, was the Wolf. How had I forgotten? It had hounded me every night. I recalled a hundred chases, a hundred defeats. And here it was, larger than life. Its golden mane glowed brightly, rippling down from a head that was easily at chest level. It cast no shadow, instead overlaying the room, as if someone had set a model on top of a photograph. The pressure it gave off was immense. It had never felt like this in my dreams, and yet I no longer felt like fleeing; my fear was there, but I'd tamped it down, squashing it to a smolder that I could feel glowing away at the base of my skull; it no longer drove me, but instead energized and alerted me, pulling every single thread of my consciousness together and focusing me, all at once, at the danger before me. Instead of ruling me, I had it contained; it was my servant now, instead of my master.

"Gooooodd. You llearn."

I don't think I had any room left for surprise left in my chest. It was already overflowing with pain, fear, rage, anxiety, and a dozen other unpleasant emotions. I didn't even have enough energy to react when the Wolf leaped into the middle of the room and snapped its jaws closed, once.

_Something_ snapped. I had no idea what was going on, but the pressure around Blind suddenly shattered like glass. She staggered, as if hit, and had to actually block one of Byrna's strikes with the Book of Mudora. She dove backwards, heading for the shelf I'd been hiding behind. I lost her at that point because my view was obscured by Wolf. It was flying towards me, lips curling in a familiar snarl, legs outstretched. I felt its teeth close on my neck, and we were falling…

**::::::::::::::::::::::::::::**

Questions? Comments? Snide remarks? Want me to read your story? Leave a review! I'd be happy to answer your questions. I'm the first person to admit my writing lacks clarity at times. ~Pyro.


	7. Shades of Gold

**Shades of Gold**

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I threw myself backwards, trying to wrench away from those wicked jaws before they found purchase on the tender skin of my throat. I threw my hands up, and tensed to hit the floor and roll.

Nothing. I watched in amazement as I slipped through the floor, my brain observing interestedly as I saw the layers of carpet, concrete, and dirt, suddenly semi-transparent, flow past me like they were an illusion. Or I was. Vertigo caught me; the world spun around me, and dissolved. I did one complete rotation midair and landed with a thump on uneven ground, scrambling desperately to stand up.

"_Now_ it works. Now, of all times!" Someone was yelling, pretty upset. I somehow managed to get my hands and feet under me and sprang upright, prepared to run for my life. In front of me stood a man glowing the same gold as the wolf.

"Hold!" He stood with one hand raised, palm out to me. I hesitated, glancing around for the wolf, looking for danger. The wolf was gone. The room was gone. Blind, Byrna, and Kirio were gone. I was standing...outside? It was difficult to tell. Thick mist draped the surroundings, blanketed the ground and obscured everything more than a dozen feet away. I got a hint of ruins, off in the distance, but that was it. And, it was quiet. Deathly, icily, still. I relaxed slightly, convinced that the immediate danger was gone.

"Listen, I said you were learning, and you are. Take a few deep breaths. You're Ok. You're not hurt. You've got a minute or three, before anything happens. Calm down." The golden man said, evenly. I took a few deep breaths, and tried to relax. His advice was good. Even if he wasn't as friendly as he acted, being calm could only help me.

"Now, listen. I'm sorry that I scared you. I've been trying to get a hold of you for weeks! But now that you've picked up the sword, things are simpler. It was the right thing, picking it up." He nodded to the black blade I still clasped in my hand. "But, it's not simple, and it's not safe. You've let yourself in for a world of hurt if you're not prepared for what's coming. That's what I'm here for." He paused for a second, and waved his hand. "Anyways, maybe this will make it a bit clearer. What, may I ask, are you so afraid of?"

I paused for a minute, struck by his question. What WAS I afraid of? Ever since I'd started having those dreams, I'd been uncannily afraid of something. The wolf mentioning destiny made my chest tighten; Kirio talking about the hero made me feel like throwing up.

"Is it responsibility?" The golden man asked, quietly. "Or destiny?"

"Not really...no, I don't think it is. It's not those things in themselves that scare me, or even simply the fear of failure. I'm not really sure."

"Maybe this can shine some light on what's going on." The man reached into a hip pocket and pulled out a long green stocking cap. He wadded it up into a ball, and tossed it to me. I snagged it out of the air, and as I touched it, a memory surfaced in my mind.

I stood on cold stone, wearing a green wool tunic, leather leggings, and this hat. To my right, but facing me, stood a giant man; wiry red hair sprouted in a mane from his weathered brown face. He was grinning, green eyes filled with laughter at something the woman to my left had just said. She was strikingly beautiful; honey-blond hair brushed back from wide blue eyes, svelt and trim in gray and blue. We were about to do something important; we were going to...

And then, as quickly as it had come, the memory was gone.

"What was _that?"_

The golden man smiled, looking inordinately pleased.

"What did you remember?"

"Me and two friends were about to accomplish something we'd worked for; worked together, long and hard, to accomplish. But I've never met them before. Never even seen them."

"Ok, Sein, I'm going to give this to you straight." The golden man looked me right in the eyes, suddenly serious. "You've been re-incarnated."

I didn't respond, simply fixing him with a level stare.

"I know it sounds weird, but that was a memory from your past life. This isn't the first time you've been re-incarnated. You are under a curse. You're cursed to return to life, again and again, and to fight, again and again. Each time you go through horrible trials. Each time so far you've succeeded, somehow managing to come out on top, again and again. But last time, you caught on to what was happening. You, and those other two people, decided that you'd had enough. Enough blood, anger, and tears. So you got some friends together, and decided to do something about it."

As he spoke, a few more memories drifted up, surfacing in my brain.

"This was a key." I raised the black sword, and looked at it wonderingly. "It was locking...something. Something important and powerful. Something that kept dragging us back, back into that tired old story."

"Yup." The golden man was nodding his head. "Yeah. The Triforce. You locked up the Triforce, with such a solid barrier that even magic had trouble getting past."

"I did it. I caused the fade. And I left you..." I broke off again, looking at the man. He was monochrome gold, but other than that, he looked a lot like me. "I left me. Part of me. In the sword." A grin spread across that golden face, my own cheeky grin on a face nearly the same as my own.

"Yeah. You're catching on. That fear you felt? It's fear of the curse. Every single time you got dragged through that mess, every single time it hurt, hurt like crazy. But." And he shot me another grin, peaceful this time.

"But it was worth it." I finished. "In the end. There's more to it than that, though." He nodded, encouraging. I felt carefully through the memories I'd regained, looking for the words I wanted. "Magic was too much for this world. The magic pouring into the land was too strong. The only thing that happened was our curse. Cyclic. It spun around, playing itself out again and again and again, everything else caught up in the middle of it. We needed a break. The world needed a break." I paused for a minute, reflecting on what I'd just said. "We got rid of the monsters!" I exclaimed. "It worked! We have technology now...cars, electronics...this is amazing! Everything we'd dreamed of...it worked!"

The golden man walked slowly over to where I was standing. I looked him over again. He was a fragment of my soul.

"You fragmented your soul into three pieces. So did Princess Zelda, and Gannon. You each placed the parts into three tears, and hid the tears in the sacred springs of Hyrule for safekeeping. Don't worry if you can't remember this yet; you'll recall it after you wake up, and we're one person again. But hold out your phone."

I dug around in my pocket, coming up with my device. He touched it, and it briefly glowed gold.

"There. A little magic, from you to you. Now you'll be able to find the rest of your memories. Also, since things are going to get kinda hairy out there in a bit-" He touched his thumb to my forehead, and a blue shield, shaped like a crystal, appeared around me. "This will keep any magic away from you. It might even help you hide." Instead of glowing, the shield seemed to absorb light. I would fade into the shadows with this.

"Ok." The golden man gave me one last smile. "So, here's your assignment. Go find the Tears. Find out who pulled your key out, and what they're planning to do. Then," and his smile spread into a grin, "Raise some hell." He embraced me, and the whole place, fog, ruins, everything, disappeared in a flash of gold.

"Owwwwww..."

I groaned silently. My whole body hurt. I was lying under the table the sword had been on top of. I was mostly hidden by the table cloth and piles of junk, and it was a good thing I was hidden because I could barely move and I didn't want to be anywhere near what was going on in the middle of the room.

If it had been pitched battle when I picked up the sword, it was now all-out war. Kirio was still down, laying quiescent in the corner. Blind and Byrna however, seemed to have kicked it up a notch. When I left, after the shade had cut through Blind's spell, she had been disadvantaged. She had somehow managed to regain the upper hand, and the magic pouring from the Book of Mudora was even more intense. The almost invisible blue spell that my shade had cast still hovered around me, so I relaxed for a second and tried to recover as fast as possible.

As I watched, Blind summoned a new spell from the book. Its pressure waned slightly as she drew from the pages a long whip, laced with fire. A flick of her wrist sent it spiraling towards Byrna, who dodged frantically. The erratic movements of the whip weren't well suited for a confined space, but she did have enough room to maneuver it, and the flames more than made up for the disadvantage. Byrna, on the verge of defeat, used a little power of her own. She stole a calm moment in the fight and ran her hands up and down the staff she was using while calling out unintelligible words. The next time she swung it, knocking back the whip, a luminescent sphere sparked into existence from the end and started darting about as if it had a life of its own.

It seemed to repel the strikes of the whip without any attention from the weilder. As soon as she was freed from constant defense Byrna went on the offensive harshly. Blind was pushed again, the whip no longer enough. She dropped it immediately, and began working frantically on another spell as Byrna closed on her with vengeance bright in her eyes.

Suddenly, the room burst into flames.

I thought for a second it was the whip, but then I realized that nothing was burning. It was like the first few seconds after lighting something soaked in kerosine; the object itself is untouched with only the fumes burning off. These flames however, weren't even hot. Just when I thought it couldn't get much weirder, snow started to fall, and a portal opened up in the middle of the room.

Magic.

I had no idea that the stuff even existed a few days ago. I've come to terms with it's existence, and even with the idea that I'm some sort of...ancient hero or something. But this was waaay beyond anything I'd seen so far. The portal looked like a blue beam of light, coruscating and gleaming. Byrna and Blind, suspicious that this was something the other had done, stood down for a minute although Blind kept muttering under her breath.

"Kekekekekekekeeekeee!"

I'd never before heard a laugh before that could be properly described as 'bone-chilling' but this one definitely cut deep enough. Little shivers walked down my spine in reaction and the hair on my neck stood up even as the fire and ice faded from the room.

The two ugliest hags I'd ever seen stepped out of the portal. The one laughing had bulging eyes, a giant hooked nose, and bags and bags of warty wrinkly skin. Her hands were claws. She was wrapped in a black gown and had a giant red stone on a chain hanging from her scrawny neck. The other one could have been her twin, except her necklace held a blue stone.

"Told you, told you it would work!" The red hag said, interrupting her cackle for some gloating. "And it worked! It did!" The one with the blue stone snapped her fingers, and I heard twin gasps as lumps of ice appeared, encasing Byrna and Blind, literally freezing them to the spot. The two hags walked slowly over to Blind. The blue one grasped the book of Mudora and firmly pried it out of her fingers.

"We'll be taking this." She said. "Thanks for activating it for us, deary."

Blind was clearly shocked, but trying to remain calm. She narrowed her eyes and shot a glare at her attacker.

"Who are you? Do you really think you can get away with this?"

"Do we think so?" The red one answered. "Deary, you don't seriously think this is the first time we've done this, do you?" She snapped her fingers, and a flame blossomed on her fingertips. "Last time, you thought up your own story. Why shouldn't others do the same?" She waved her hand and the flame shaped itself into a giant spear, the tip near enough to Blind's face that a few strands of her auburn hair started to shrivel.

"Hist." The blue hag touched the red hag's arm. She waved towards the door blown in by Kirio's kick. "There's others coming. We've got everything we need; we don't need to kill these. Let them run around frantically for a while yet, before we finish up. It's not like they can stop us, right?"

"Right! Fine! Kekekekeee!"

"Kakakakaaakaa!"

Laughing crazily, the two hags turned and strolled back to their portal.

"Later, dears! When they ask who called, tell them it was Komue and Kotake! We'll be seeing you soon, you know! Soon, soon, no one will be able to stop us! Count on it, dears!"

The blue hag delivered one last gloat before stepping through the portal, which promptly vanished with a crack and a bang like lighting. The afterimage glowed on my eyes for a few seconds and I closed them, trying to remember why those names were so familiar to me. I opened them again as booted feet stormed into the room.

A young man totally clothed in indigo blue, with a red eye emblazoned on his chest, lead in two others dressed in tunics and leggings. They looked anachronistic, but they each had a sidearm as well as a short sword that they carried over their shoulders. They took in the room quickly and immediately targeted Blind and Byrna. At a signal from their leader, they replaced the guns. He stepped towards Blind.

"Naqiba Blind." He greeted her, bowing gently. His voice was warm and pleasant, a light tenor.

"Sheik." She responded. I wondered briefly if that was his title or his name. "I apologize for not bowing. I'm not trying to be cold, but as you can see..."

'Indeed." His eyes swept up and down, taking in the fact that she was pretty much encased in a solid chunk of ice. "We can deal with that in a minute. However, I'm here specifically by request of Her Majesty, Princess Zelda. I'm sorry to say it, but I'm here to arrest you."

Blind closed her eyes, and nodded resignedly. I don't know what part of her actions was against the laws of the Deeper World, but she apparently realized that she'd been caught red-handed, and resigned herself to meet her punishment with dignity.

"Knight Byrna." Sheik turned to the other woman, frozen as well. "We have similar orders regarding you and Baron Kirio. Can you give your parole, and his too?"

"Yes." her voice was shaking but she said it confidently, meeting his eyes squarely. Sheik's face was covered with a white scarf, but I thought I saw his eyes smile.

"Very good. Well then, let's do something about that ice." He casually walked over to where Kirio lay and extracted the golden medallion from his pocket. Holding it out in front of him, he concentrated like I'd seen Kirio do. I felt magical pressure build, and in a few seconds the ice started melting rapidly. Blind and Byrna staggered as the water rushed off of them, hissed into steam and disappeared into the air. soon, even their clothes were dry.

"There." Sheik handed the medallion to Byrna. Blind looked like she was about to say something, but held her peace. "Knights, pick him up, please," Sheik said, motioning to Kirio. The two soldiers with him carefully hoisted the unconscious man.

This whole time, I'd been lying as quietly as possible. My muscles had stopped hurting enough for me to move a while ago, but with the entrance of the hags and later the knights, I'd been trying to lay as low as possible. Now I watched, barely willing to believe my good luck, as they turned and moved quickly towards the door. I counted slowly to twenty after they'd left and then dragged myself out from under the table.

Moving as quickly as I could without stumbling, I stood up, gathered up the black sword and carefully moved towards the still-whole door, the one I'd originally come in through. Closing it again after me and locking it almost as an afterthought, I made my way back towards the room I'd been held in. Although it seemed like hours and hours since I'd last been here the light coming through the windows was still from electric streetlights. I sighed in relief and pushed the chair up underneath one of the windows. I was concerned for a minute as to whether my idea would when I saw the rusty frame, but the window did open, slowly. It took a bit of squirming and writhing, but I eventually worked my way out and stood up, looking around. The hideout looked like an apartment building from the outside. I was at the back, the road curving around to my left. I listened for a minute, hearing voices and yelling in that direction. Walking slowly to the corner I hid behind a bush and peered around.

I couldn't see much, just a few cars; most of what was going on was happening around the next corner in front of me, and there was no way I'd be willing to get close enough to look around that one. As I watched though, two figures who might have been Blind and Byrna were lead to one of the cars and locked in.

I withdrew and glanced around again. There was a park across the road, and up and down the road in either direction were more apartment buildings. I listened. I couldn't hear any car engines. I considered what to do with the sword, and then slid it up the back of my shirt, holding it with both hands behind my back. It sucked, but I wasn't about to try putting it down my pants, and hopefully no-one would see the odd lump I was carrying at the first glance. I walked to the edge of the garden surrounding the building and jogged across the road.

It nearly took me an hour to get home. After searching through a dumpster, I managed to find some cardboard and paper to wrap the sword up in. When the shape was well enough disguised, I walked a few more blocks and called a taxi.

I was about ready to collapse after paying the fare and stumbling up the driveway. I carefully unlocked the door and stepped inside. My mind snapped back to that time, days ago it seemed now, when I'd done exactly the same thing and walked into an ambush.

_I need to get out of here._

Every moment I spent here endangered my family.

I sat down at the kitchen table, and sank my head in my hands. _I can't tell them what's going on. Even if they believed it, it's less dangerous for them not to know. I need to get out of here, but I need an alibi. One that will last at least a few days, long enough for me to come to some sort of resolution. _

I glanced up at the clock. Three in the morning. That whole escapade had taken less than four hours, and an hour of that had been getting home!

Resigning myself, I stood up again and slowly walked up to my room. This time it was empty of thugs. I gathered up my birdwatching stuff. I'd reached a decision; I was going to go camping.

**:::::::::::::::::::::::**

**Afterwords**: Well, as promised, I'm updating once a week! I've even added a cover, that I spent _at least _fifteen minutes slapping together! That's commitment, that is. On a more serious note, in the time between re-starting this story and now, I've actually finished writing the last chapter! Weighing in at 19 chapters and about 55,000 words, I've actually finished a story! This is very exciting for me, and means that (barring catastrophe) you guys can be assured that this will follow through to _some _sort of ending! Enough exclamation marks, here are responses to my reviews...

Espeonage Espeon: Thanks! I appreciate that your checking for mistakes, and I'm relieved that you like my plot. Between last chapter and this one, the story sat untouched for quite some time, so the plot might get a little more crazy after this. I...kinda sorta...threw a lot of what I'd planned out when I re-booted it, so hopefully it holds togther.

Ender Wiggin190: I was planning on posting this Monday, but your request motivated me to put it up sooner. That might not always work in the future, though.

Thanks for the kind words, guys! They're very encouraging. I still feel I'm quite immature as a writer, although the fact that I try and spell-check maybe _does_ set me above 80% of this website. If you want to read a _really _good story, though, I'd suggest checking out 'Insomnia', by tikitikirevenge, 'The Golden Power' by DBAinsw, or 'The Legend of Zelda: Exoria' by Sudentor, all three of which are excellent, and inspired me to write some fancfiction of my own, although sadly, they don't update very often. None have been officially discontinued, though, so there is hope yet, as my own story has demonstrated.

**Pyro out!**


	8. Spirits and Monsters

**Spirits and Monsters**

**::::::::::::::::::::**

I scribbled a note as an excuse, a bit of nonsense about how the weather looked too good to pass up and how I was feeling edgy, and threw some food into a small cooler. I strapped it to my bike along with my gear; a sleeping bag, backpack, notebooks, a few changes of clothes, my binoculars and the sword. I often went camping and birdwatching. I'd even left this precipitously before. I didn't have anything that really needed doing for a few days, and I'd actually been planning a trip like this before all this craziness happened. My family would be fine with this.

The sky was starting to turn gray by the time I was finished with my prep. I rolled my bike out of the driveway in the pre-dawn chill, standing for a minute and looking back at my house, feelings of worry and fear washing over me.

I felt like I was sinking slowly into a mire, unable to move and drowning, overcome by all the weirdness that had taken a hold of me. For a second, I entertained the thought that maybe I could just walk back to my house and pretend nothing had happened.

_No._ I strengthened my resolve, and faced forward again. I would see this through.

I pulled my helmet on decisively and slung a leg over my bike. The engine seemed startlingly loud in the quiet neighborhood, but I was quickly gone.

**:::::::::::::::**

The campsite I picked was one I'd used before. It had been a year or so, but it was a nice one; a clearing deep in the public forest with an old logging trail not to far away. My bike handled the dusty dirt road admirably, and before the sun came up I was there, digging through my stuff for my sleeping bag.

I didn't use a tarp or anything. Just slid into the bag and curled up in a pile of crackly maple leaves. I felt safe for the first time in hours.

Sleep came instantly.

**:::::::::::::::**

The sun was well above the treetops before it woke me up. I blearily packed up my sleeping bag and tried to take stock of my situation.

Breakfast seemed to be the first order of business.

As I munched granola bars, I unwrapped the sword. In full daylight it was even more impressive than it had been last night. The balance was perfect, and it fit me even better than I'd hoped. I finished my breakfast quickly and began running through my exercises, my body on autopilot while my mind tried to work through everything that had happened last night.

I kept thinking back to what had happened when I'd first grasped the sword. Did I really meet myself from a past life? It had all seemed so clear at the time, what I'd done, who I was. But now it seemed like a fever dream, a memory rapidly melting in the uncompromising daylight. All I was left with was a feeling of purpose; as if I had a mission that I ought to be fulfilling.

Find the tears. Find the culprit. Raise some hell.

I smiled. He really had thought like me.

I suddenly remembered my phone. Pulling the slim device out of my pocket, I searched it for whatever magic had been done to it. It seemed normal. I stepped into the shade so I could get a better look at the screen and turned it on. No voice-mail, but a text from my sister: _Have fun! Wish I was with you! _I smiled to myself and replied with a quick word of thanks.

_Aha._ After sending the text, I checked the screens and the menus for changes. Right in the middle of the applications was a new icon, a symbol that looked like a three-part yin-yang colored red, blue and green. I opened it without a second thought.

There were no splash screens, no loading time. The screen immediately showed three objects shaped like curved teardrops; each one had an arrow pointing in different directions, a distance, and what looked like a set of GPS coordinates. Down on the bottom was a button that said "Info". I pressed it.

_These tears contain fragments of memory and power left to the three inheritors by their previous incarnations. They are located at magical springs, under the safekeeping of the springs light spirit. For more precise directions, at the spring the Hero ought to be able to find the tears by dowsing with his sword. _

_Be careful! Magical artifacts tend to attract monsters! There's a good chance you will have to fight to redeem these tears!_

_Right now you are closest to Eldin's spring. _

I looked closely; the distance to the red tear was the smallest, just over a mile and half. I checked the direction and thought for a minute.

I could get a hold of one of these today. Apparently it would contain some power and memories. I swung the black sword again; there might even be a fight.

OK, let's do this.

After tidying up my camp I took out a coil of wire and some rope I'd grabbed and attempted to rig a harness for the sword. Nothing really seemed perfect, but I finally got it to hang on my back with the handle sticking up over my shoulder. Satisfied, I turned on my phone, took a sighting at a mountain off in the distance, and set out.

**:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::**

The spring was spectacular.

I'd no idea that this was back here. It was tucked into a boxy valley, cliff faces on three sides, with the stream rushing out from the fourth, frothing as it spilled down the mountainside away from the spring. I approached from one of the sides, and it took my breath away. The spring welled up in a pool halfway up the cliff, and spilled down over huge boulders before gathering into a crystal clear pool. There were plenty of foot and hand holds so I clambered down the side. This must be the place; my phone said I was within thirty feed of the thing.

I tried tracking it down with the phone a bit more, but apparently the GPS wasn't subtle enough to get it. _Guess I have to try dowsing._

I drew the sword and held it in front of me, feeling kinda silly.

Nothing. I gently waved it, the tip making a figure eight pattern in the air.

Nothing. I spun around slowly while waving it.

Nothing...wait. There _was_ something. I turned again, closing my eyes this time and focusing all my attention on the grip in my hand. as I spun, I felt a slight tug. Ever so gentle, but it was there.

_Crazy._

I followed the gentle nudge, walking slowly along the gravel beach, the cliff at my right. I headed towards the spring. The sword gently led me towards a large boulder until-ting! The tip hit the rock.

Well, that was successful. I carefully sheathed the sword, preparing to go back to searching, but where the sword had touched caught my eye. On the surface of the boulder there was a red smudge. Looking closer it seemed to be...no, it was! A red teardrop shape. Was the tear caught _inside_ the rock?

I stepped back, taking in the surroundings. This boulder wasn't too big; merely the size of a large car instead of a small house. It must have fallen off the cliff because it sat mostly alone, a little to the side of the spring. My eyes swept back and forth, looking for hiding places, focused on what 'info' had said: _You might need to fight for these tears._ I couldn't see anything.

I carefully adjusted my grip on the sword and took a deep breath. Moving slowly, I reached out and ran my fingers across the tear, embedded in the boulder.

_Tok._ With a dull snapping sound, the tear fell out, landing in the palm of my hand. I stood surprised for a second and then curled my fingers around it and shoved it into my pocket. I spun, facing outwards, my breath coming fast; I pushed my back against the cliff still looking for signs of monsters.

For a second, there was nothing. Then the boulder I'd freed the tear from started to move.

_No. Way._ Was the only thing going through my head as I watched the monster unfold. It was roughly man-shaped, with two lumpy arms and legs, a nuggety head, and a big grotesque torso. The whole thing was rock gray, and it had eyes that glittered like mica. It turned towards me and roared.

I jumped back, trying to put some distance between myself and the thing. It took a casual swipe at me and I dodged frantically. When its gently swinging arm hit the cliff next to me and sent up a spray of rock chips, I was very glad I hadn't blocked. I turned away from it and dashed across the gravelly beach towards the stream. I needed some distance to think.

It came after me. When I was knee-deep in the middle of the stream I turned towards it again. As I'd expected, when it hit the silty river bottom it started to sink in. I gave it a few seconds until it started to wallow. It was having trouble gaining traction, or lifting it's feet back out of what must have felt like gooey mud to it. My lighter weight let me dash downstream, out of it's reach, and circle around. I approached cautiously. It turned towards me and swung its near arm. I dodged with alacrity, but it couldn't follow up on it's advantage since it couldn't turn it's lower body.

I went in immediately, praying that it wasn't rock the whole way through. A hard thrust, with my beautiful new black sword. The tip caught it in the elbow joint and I pressed in with all my weight. It roared and yanked it's arm away; I held on and managed to extract my sword. It thrashed at the muddy ground, twisting and writhing until it faced me. Unwilling to face it on even ground, I dashed out into the stream again. Blackish blood dripped into the river from it's arm, leaving little curling clouds of blue mist in the water.

It was angry now. It tried moving on all fours, attempting to spread it's weight out so it could come after me. Backing away cautiously, I waited until it was committed to a lunge and then stepped in again, trying to land a swing on its near arm.

I mistimed it.

I didn't realize it had it's other arm free until it's fingers, three giant brown sausages of rock, wrapped around my thigh. I yelled, half in horror, half for power and swung my sword with all the might I could muster from that odd angle. The blade was keen, and left a deep gash in that monstrous wrist, but didn't encourage the monster to let go. Rather it roared again, yanked it's hand back and _threw me._ I writhed in midair, trying to get some sort of control over my fall. The monster had tossed me hard, high enough to send me flying over the top of the cliff. I arched a little and hit a tree with my left shoulder. My sword went flying and stopped somewhere with a _clang._ I spun away the other direction, my arm numb from the impact, and fell onto some sort of springy shrub. It broke my fall nicely.

_Why couldn't I have flown just a bit more to the right?_ I struggled to my feet, my eyes darting everywhere, looking for my sword. There. The dark metal gleamed dully, fetched up against a boulder. I rushed over to it, picking it up in my right hand; not ideal, but it would have to do. I turned back towards the valley and looked for the boulder monster.

It had somehow managed to thrash its way up out of the mud and now stood at the base of the cliff glaring up at me. I stepped back in apprehension as it reached one knobbly hand up and started to climb.

"Damn damn damn..." I glanced right and left, trying to think something up. If it got up here, I was doomed. It would be faster and stronger than me in the forest, and I couldn't deal with this thing in a fair fight. My eyes lit on a small boulder nearby. I hefted the stone, easily the size of a bowling ball, and waited. When the monster was reaching up with it's right hand, and more weight hung more from its damaged left arm, I threw the stone at its face and yelled.

Bulls-eye.

The monster looked up just in time to get the rock, which was almost half the size of it's head, right in the eye. I pumped my fist in victory as the monster fell backwards off the cliff with a noise like a sledge hitting cement. I watched it for a second. It lay sprawled on it's back, twitching. Moving quickly, I hung the sword from my back and scrambled down the cliff. When I hit the beach, I dashed forward, leaped over its arm, and drew my sword, unthinkingly using my damaged left arm. I gasped at the pain, and almost dropped the blade.

Switching hands, I tightened my grip as best I could and lined it up with the monster's neck. I glanced to the side, preparing to dive into the river, and put every last ounce of force I could muster into the swing.

_Thunk._ The sound of my sword cutting into its flesh was followed a split second later by a titanic roar. I dove sideways, scrabbling away from the beast, dashing across the river. From the other bank I watched as it struggled to its feet, the black sword protruding from it's neck. Inky blood streamed down it's body, running across the gravel and turning the stream cobalt. It yanked the sword out and took one tottering step towards me before collapsing. I watched in amazement as it started to smoke, its body decomposing visibly. Finally, after a minute or two, it was gone. The whole thing crumbled to dust and blew away.

I sank to my knees, shivering. My shoulder was definitely sprained, but hopefully not broken. I was sure to have huge bruises on my leg and I was covered in mud, leaves, sand, and dirt. I was soaked and my cargo pants were riding up.

I felt great.

Who knew fighting for your life would be such a rush? I threw my head back and laughed, whooping my victory to the blue sky.

Take that, world.

Filled with elation, I slowly pushed myself to my feet and staggered across the river. I gathered up my sword, and started scaling the cliff.

_Hero. _

An echoy voice called out to me. I stopped for a second and glanced around. The pool the river sprang from caught my eye; under the water, strange patterns etched into the rock had started to glow. Slowly, the water in the center of the pool humped and mounded, gathering into an orb about a foot across. Light gathered around the orb, coalescing into the shape of a hawk with a wingspan of maybe four feet. It clutched the orb in it's talons, hanging in midair without flapping.

_Come over here, Hero. I will heal you. _

I considered for a second. It hadn't attacked me. Also, hadn't the message my shade left on the phone mentioned light spirits? I carefully climbed back down the cliff, favoring my left shoulder, and worked my way up the boulders to the pool.

The pool was quite shallow, ankle deep at best.

_Where does all that water come from?_ I wondered, looking downstream. This didn't seem like enough water to feed that river.

The spirit floated in front of me.

_If you wash yourself with the water from this pool, your wounds will fade._

I ducked and splashed the water on my face, and then sat down, slopping it over my crushed leg. I sighed in pleasure as the pain from the bruises faded. I lay back and let the cold water soak into my shoulder, too. It felt glorious. When I felt sufficiently revitalized I stood and stretched my arms carefully. Nothing hurt. I was a bit stiff, but hopefully that wouldn't last. I turned to the spirit with a smile.

"Thanks very much, Eldin. I appreciate it greatly."

_Oh, do you remember me?_

"No, not yet. But this is your spring, right?"

_Indeed. Now, if you like, I can also unlock that tear for you. _

"It needs to be unlocked?"

_Yes. Part of the safety mechanism, I believe you said. Unless you want it to activate immediately, I'd suggest wrapping it in something so your skin isn't touching it._

I reached into my pockets but came up with nothing. I pulled off a shoe and sock and wrapped it in the sock. The walk back might be a bit awkward, but my shoes were already soaked. It wouldn't be that much more uncomfortable.

"Well, please." I held the red stone out towards the glowing golden eagle. He reached out with his beak and tapped it gently. It glowed for a second and then the mottled coloration cleared off the surface of the stone and it shone crystal clear, looking like a giant ruby. I noticed for the first time that it actually had a hole through the rounded end. It looked like some sort of bead, meant to be strung on a necklace.

_There. I'd suggest you find somewhere quiet. Then, simply touch it to your skin. The rest will work itself out. I wish you well, young Hero. _

"Thanks Eldin, I appreciate it." I watched as the golden spirit melted back into the water of the spring, and the network of runes underfoot faded out again, before beginning the long hike back to my campsite.

**:::::::::::::::::::::::::::**

So, sorry this took a while to post. I don't have internet at my new apartment, (living off campus) and I forgot to post whenever I was between classes. I wish had an autopost thing, where I could upload all the chapters and they'd show up for your every week. If that's possible, and one of you guys knows how, I'd really appreciate knowing.

Espeon; Thanks, fix'd!

Questions? Comments? Snide remarks? Want me to read your story? Leave a review! I'd be happy to answer your questions. I'm the first person to admit my writing lacks clarity at times, and the descriptions that work in my head might not work in yours. ~Pyro.


	9. Memories and Masks

**Memories and Masks**

**::::::::::::::::::::::**

The hike back to camp didn't take as long as I'd feared it would. Amazingly, my phone was fine; I was definitely glad I'd opted for the rugged model with the water-resistance feature, but decided next time I'd better stash it somewhere safe before the throw down. I simply followed my GPS back, taking sightings every so often and slogging determinedly through the forest.

By the time I got back to camp it was mid-afternoon and I was getting hungry. I shuffled through the stuff on my bike until I turned up the cooler. Extracting my half-carton of eggs, I decided to scramble some of them and make toast for lunch.

It didn't take long to get a fire going. As I waited for the maple boughs I'd gathered to burn to usable coals, my thoughts turned back to the tear. Was now a good time to use it? I looked back at the fire. It was subsiding gently; it would be fine by itself for a bit. I pulled the wadded-up sock out of my pocket and lay back on the grass. Working the tear out of the cloth, I dropped it into the palm of my hand. It felt slightly cool, but warmed quickly as I held it. After a few seconds a golden glow rushed up my arm; I closed my eyes and once again fell through the ground.

The same as with the sword, the world seemed to spin around me. This time instead of a thump, I landed in something soft and gritty. Forcing myself to my feet, I shielded my eyes from blowing grit. I was in a desert. Vast as the eye could see, rolling dunes were thrashed by a merciless wind.

"Ho! Link!" Something thumped me on the back, almost hard enough to make me fall over again. "It's good to see you!" A deep bass voice rumbled from behind me. Strong hands spun me around. "It's been a while, eh?"

I stared into the green eyes of the man who had been standing on my right, in my memories of sealing the Triforce. Dark brown skin, wiry red hair and BIG. This guy was big.

"Sorry," I coughed, trying to keep the sand out of my mouth, "I go by Sein now."

"Really! Oh, sorry about the sand." He snapped his fingers, and the wind stopped, leaving only the beating sun and the dunes. "Hey, Link-sorry, Sein. Did you, perhaps, come to visit me first?"

I nodded, looking around, although there really was nothing to see. This man just made me a little nervous, for some reason. I felt like I knew him, but I wasn't sure how.

"Ok." His voice was solemn. "Listen. I've told you this before, but right now, you don't remember it so I'm going to say it again." He put his hands behind his back, and bowed, deeply. "Thank you very much."

"Y-your welcome." I stuttered. I'm not sure what I'd been expecting, but profound gratitude had not been it.

"Now." He snapped his fingers again and a stone platform, complete with chairs and a small table, rose out of the sand. "Business is over, let's have some fun."

"Ha?" I gasped. "No, wait. What are you thanking me for? Aren't you Gannondorf? Didn't the hero-Link-me...fight you?"

"Yeah, once. Look, it's complicated. You'll remember eventually. But we did fight, and you won. After that, you went back in time, and changed the past. You saved me, befriended me. After that, we were friends! We worked together. We did-" he waved his hand at my sword. "-that. Nice piece of work, by the way. I wasn't sure we'd manage it. It's been, what, five hundred years? we've done pretty good, all said. Congratulations, Sein."

"...thanks."

"Here." A metal cup, frosted with condensation, had appeared on the table. Ganon picked it up and handed it to me. I cautiously sat down and sipped it, stealing glances at my big friend. And he was big. Easily over six feet tall.

"Did I really beat you?"

"Really really. You always could, too. Out of the three of us, you were the guy we turned to at pinch time. Not the strongest, or the fastest, but you won, time and again. Must have been because of your triangle. I've been sitting here thinking for five hundred odd years, and I think I finally figured it out, how your triangle works."

"My triangle?"

"Yeah. Your Triforce. Of courage. The bottom left one, I think? Maybe. Anyways, I figure courage is the power of decision. See, the only thing that's different between a coward and a hero is the decisions they make. One decides to run, the other decides to fight. And fight, and fight, and fight. Even if he dies, he's still courageous, because he decided it was worth it. So, your triangle affects the decisions you make. You've got exceptional judgment, I think. And probably good luck, too."

"Hey, this stuff is good!" I sipped my drink. It tasted like oranges, but there was a depth to it I didn't recognize.

"I know, right? You've always liked this wine!"

"Pfwa?" I sputtered for a second. "I'm only nineteen! I can't drink-"

"Pffft. Sein. Even if this WASN'T just a dream, you're at least five-hundred and eighty. Don't sweat the small stuff!"

"...yeah, Ok." I took another gulp. It was delicious, after all. And cold.

"Haaa! Ok. Now, I've got gifts for you." He rummaged around in the pockets of his clothes, and pulled out two crystals One was golden and one was green. "This," He tapped the golden one, "Is magic power. You don't have any, right now. This will give you a little, about a fourth of what you used to have. This," He tapped the green one, "Is memories. Again, I don't have much. We decided to split them up a bit, for redundancy. Here." He slid the two crystals across the table to me. I looked at them for a second.

"What do I do with them?"

"Put them in your pocket. You've already got them, really; these are just symbols, so you know what's going on. Now, Sein, tell me what's been happening."

"Um." I thought for a minute. "Well, it all started when I was trying to fix my motorbike..."

**:::::::::**

The story went by quickly, faster than I thought it would. Ganon was an exceptional listener. He made appreciative noises, laughed at all the right parts and asked some pretty pointed questions.

"Why do I feel like we've done this before?" I asked, bothered by a sense of nostalgia.

"We have, many times. I know you're having trouble believing it, but we were best friends. We spent plenty of time drinking and talking. The King of the Gerudo, the Hero of Time, and the Princess of Hyrule. We rattled all around the continent for years, before you came up with that harebrained scheme. Well, I said it was crazy, but here we are. Anyways, back to what you were saying. Those two hags called themselves Komue and Kotake?"

"Yeah."

He went still, quiet as a rock. I looked up and he was gazing at the table, but fury burned in his eyes.

"Those witches. Still causing trouble. Still hurting people. When will I finally get to kill them?" He voice was harsh, the normally soft bass a threatening rumble.

"Old enemies?"

"The oldest. They used me. The were the ones who..." His voice trailed off. "Well, you'll remember. That's why I'm so grateful to you. You saved me from them, when it comes right down to it. I'm hardly surprised they're the ones behind this. Slimy old witches. They're sly. But, honestly, they're not that powerful. So, my advice to you is to keep on keeping on. If you've got the chance, join up with Zelda. She's a great girl, and wonderful to have at your back in a tough spot. She's sure to be at the center of what's going on."

"Actually, I was about to come to that. After the hags disappeared, Sheik showed up." I sat back, and let the newly acquired memories slosh around in my skull. I'd realized they _were_ there, after a bit. I felt like they really wouldn't be properly mine until I'd had a good few hours of sleep, but some of that newly acquired knowledge had bits about Zelda in it – Zelda and Sheik. My brain was telling me that they were one and the same person.

"So she's still using that disguise!" Ganon said. "Man, that must have been passed down quite a few times. You'd think people would catch on."

"Nah, she's too clever for that."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Well, she showed up and marched Kirio, Blind and Byrna out of there. I skipped out the back, decided I needed to lay low for a while and, well, you saw me show up in the gorge."

"Yup, that I did. Nice fight, by the way. Even though you're nowhere near up to snuff, you still know how to scrap."

"Thanks." I looked up at him. If anyone knew about scrapping, I'd lay money he did.

"Anyways Sein, your fire's about ready to fry on, so I'd better let you go. Remember, this isn't really me, it's just a lump of memories. The real me is running around out there, so spend some time looking if you get the chance, but since the gears of Destiny are grinding again I'll probably show up sooner or later anyways. I'm sure I'd love to have my memories back as well, and this is most of them. I'd be mighty glad for a chance to punch Komue and Kotake too."

"Yeah. Thanks for the help. Thanks for the drink. And," I paused for a second. "Thanks for talking with me."

"Aw, no sweat. You're probably feeling lost and alone, but there's people out there for you. Just takes a bit of time to find them."

We shook hands, and he waved once...

And I was back in my body. He'd been right, the fire was just about ready. I pulled my cast-iron pan out of my pack. It was heavy, but worth having when you were camping. I dropped it right into the coals and added a strip of bacon.

Pretty soon, I had a bowl of scrambled eggs and a few slices of fried bread. I dug in eagerly, sitting cross legged in front of my fire. It had been entirely too long since I'd had a good meal. I'd like to say it was because I was eating, but it wasn't until I saw sun glinting off of metal that I realized someone was approaching my camp.

I glanced up, taking the situation in quickly. A young woman in dark green pants and tunic, with a yellow crest sewn on the shoulder, was walking silently up to the fire. She held a pistol ready, lowered but firmly gripping it with both hands. I contemplated running either towards her or away, but gave up. There's no easy way to go from cross-legged to a sprint that I know of. I caught her eye.

"Can I help you?"

"Stay where you are!" She barked, her pistol raising ever so slightly. I froze. I did not want that pistol pointed at me if I could help it. I tried to remember how my shade had created that faceted blue shield yesterday, but came up with the idea that maybe it would require some sort of crystal for me to use. Damn.

"I apologize, but you need to remain sitting. This campsite is surrounded by Hylian Knights. We've been asked to keep you here until our leader shows up." She said, stiffly.

"Ok. Fine. Would you like some lunch?" I offered her a piece of toast, hoping she'd at least be confused.

"No." She simply stared me down. Tough lady. Suddenly, something in my brain twitched, and I realized that, if they hadn't changed it in five hundred years, her insignia meant she was a squad leader. Damn damn double damn. She most likely DID have this place surrounded. And if she'd found me here, that means that she must have tracked me, probably from the falls. She might have even watched me fight the boulder monster. No wonder she was slightly apprehensive. On the other hand, maybe this meant...

"Are you waiting for Sheik by any chance?" I asked, watching her carefully. The surprise in her eyes was well concealed, but I caught it.

"And if she is?" A mellow tenor asked, as Sheik himself stepped out of the trees.

"Just the man I wanted to see. Would you like some lunch?" I offered him a piece of toast, with eggs on it.

"Don't mind if I do. Sarah, thanks for the work. At ease, and please back off a bit." The squad leader retreated until she was under the edge of the tree line, far enough away that quiet voices wouldn't carry easily. Sheik sat down on a stump near me and took the piece of bread. He pulled the scarf across his face down and began eating it with every sign of enjoyment.

"I'll ask this straight out." Sheik said, looking me right in the eyes. His eyes were as red as the sunset. "Who are you?"

"Sein Rhemi."

"That's your name. Not who you are. Title? Position? Job description?"

"Honestly, Sheik, I'm surprised you don't recognize me. How did you find me?" My guest said nothing, but his eyes flicked towards Sarah, all the confirmation I needed. I'd guessed right. Zelda was having the tears watched. Stupid of me not to realize, but there's not a whole lot I could do now. And, after all, I did need to make contact with her at some point. I carefully reached into my pocket and slowly pulled out the tear, showing Sheik it wasn't dangerous. I wrapped it back up in the sock and passed it to him. Some of the red color inside it was gone, leaving a thick layer of only slightly reddish glass around the edges.

"Here's the tear. Part of it's yours; I hope you use it soon." He shot me another quizzical look. "Really." I point to the black sword resting against a nearby tree. "I'm surprised you don't recognize me."

Sheik casually crunched down the last of his toast.

"Mr. Rhemi. You haven't done anything wrong, so I'm not going to take any action. But I want you to leave the rest of the tears alone. This is a warning. You won't get another."

"Fine. But I hope you realize soon Sheik, that I'm not your enemy. How are Kirio and Blind, if you don't mind my asking?"

That one got a rise out of him. He was surprised, and Sheik did not like being surprised. _That's right, too._ I thought, excitement rising. _I know this man!_ The new memories I'd acquired were coming in handy already.

"How do you know about them?"

"I was there. Under a table on the other side of the room, aching too much to move. I retreated while you were gone. But I saw the whole thing, from when Kirio broke down the door to when Twinrova disappeared."

I had him now. Neither Zelda or Sheik had been able to resist a mystery, and it's not hard to be enigmatic when you're being drawn into the center of a web of destiny.

"I don't suppose Blind told you that Twinrova took the book of Mudora?" I saw the reply in his eyes. "No, I don't suppose she was feeling too cooperative. And you're no despot; no stomach for torture, either, even if you had the authority." I spoke casually, but my new memories confirmed what I was saying. It was a weird feeling, knowing this man without ever having met him. Kind of like cheating. I grinned secretly. It was fun. "I'm sorry to tell you this, but you're going to be getting monsters pretty soon."

"What?"

"Monsters. Like the one at the spring. Maybe Sarah-" I waved at the squad captain "-can tell you about it. Plenty of artifacts have been activated by now, so there's enough magic in the air for them to start forming. You're going to need all your allies, Princess. I can help you with that."

That last bit, with the Princess, I said without even thinking. Sheik and Zelda were starting to overlap in my mind. That one really caught him off-guard; his breath hissed through his teeth in a gasp when I said it. For a second I thought I'd gone too far. I wondered if I'd have to try and fight my way out of this glade after all. But he calmed down after bit. I could almost see his thoughts spinning. As far as he knew, no-one could see through his magical disguise. But out in the middle of the woods, someone he'd never even met before pierced it casually.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to say that. But seriously, part of that tear is for you. Take it home, unwrap it, and touch it. You'll learn something worthwhile, I promise. And again, I promise I want to help you." _Or rather, I want you to help me._ But I didn't say that.

"Mr. Rhemi, what are you planning to do today?"

"Well, I was considering looking for another tear. But since the next one is at least a few hours-" I pointed southwest, across Hyrule town, towards the province of Faron. "-that way, I probably won't bother. And, you wanted me to lay off. So I guess I'll do some birdwatching."

"Fine. I need some time to think about this." He stood, pulling the scarf back over his face. "Sarah, please stay here and watch our guest. He's promised to stay here and I'm sure he won't cause you trouble, but check in every half hour. Everyone else form up on me." Silently, three other Knights drifted out of the trees and followed Sheik as he paced back in the direction of the road. I shivered a little as I got a glimpse of their compact rifles. Those would have given me a very hard time indeed, unless I had suddenly remembered how my magic was supposed to work.

Well, birdwatching for the afternoon, I guess.

**::::::::::::::::::**

Ender: 8 days to post, or else what? Or else I get cookies? Mmm, cookies.

Kyle; My main character is named Sein. (Pronounced Seen.) If you really need a rationalization for the cops not showing up, (besides plot) I'll just say that Kirio planned things out well in advance, the rent-a-cop guards were mainly for show, and the two of them were moving too fast for anyone to see license plates, or the vehicle he was using. Once they were out of the parking lot, they would look pretty much like normal traffic, albeit speeding. It's not a 'chase' from the point of view of people around them. They're not shooting, crashing into each other or other people, or driving through crowded streets. Kirio planned to be long gone before the authorities even started searching for him.

As for the fight with Kirio in the street, it happened quickly as well, in a fairly empty place, and it was a quiet fight. No screaming or yelling. They were gone soon after, too. The people with the birdhouse didn't even find out until the next day, and they thought it was dumb teenagers.

Well, enough of that. I didn't write the cops in, because I didn't want them involved; next time I'll try and think up better rationalizations, but I honestly don't think that it's unreasonable to say that they didn't notice or couldn't respond in time. And not every city has news copters.

You're right about a lack of creative energy in the world; I haven't spent a whole lot of time focusing on it. I decided with this story to work mostly on getting it done, and didn't spend a lot of time world-building. I know that this leaves the story with some weaknesses, but the strength is pretty good, too: I finished it. That being said, I'll try and give you a bit of background. It's not completely devoid of planning, it's just not extremely well laid out. As you might have guessed, I haven't drawn a map.

This version of Hyrule is set in an alternate version of Twilight Princess. The Sealing, which caused the Fade, happened after the events in Ocarina of Time, with some adjustments. As you might have guessed from what Ganon says in this chapter, this takes place in a modified version of the Child time-line. After the Fade, monsters pretty much vanished from the world. This caused a population explosion, and after that, a technological boom, in the time of peace. Castle Town grew immensely, and absorbed Kakariko, which is quite close to it in Ocarina of Time.

The combined Kakariko/Castle Town is now known as Hyrule Town, although I might change that to Hyrule City eventually, since I want it to be a pretty big place. It's in the foothills of Death Mountain. I've also shuffled the Light Spirits around a bit, mostly for convenience. Since this entire story takes place, for the most part, in Hyrule Town, I haven't spent much time working out the landscape outside of it. If I write a sequel, I might have to do more planning, and maybe ret-con some stuff, too.

My current conception of the country of Hyrule is that it's about the size of California. Big enough to make things interesting, but still small enough to get around in. I'm not sure yet if/how I want to have other countries near it. This never comes up in the games, but with a hi-tech world, some form of globalization is pretty much a must-have. I might make it an island nation, but none of the Loz games set in Hyrule have the sea in them.

Well, I hope that answers a few of your questions. If you've got more, just drop 'em on me.


	10. Marshmallows at Midnight

**Marshmallows at Midnight**

**:::::::::::::::::::**

"Hey Sarah, turn to the side."

I sat with my back against a tree with my sketchbook in my lap, chewing on the end of my pencil.

"What?"

My nominal guard, the Hylian Knight Sarah, stood at the other side of the clearing trying to concentrate. I must confess I wasn't helping much, but I wasn't worried. I wasn't dangerous, and the fact she hadn't believed Sheik when he told her that wasn't my problem.

"Turn to the side. I want to try sketching you in profile."

"You've been sketching me?" I couldn't tell whether she sounded bashful or annoyed.

"Yeah, well, there aren't any birds around here right now, and maple trees get boring after a few hours, so...yes. I have been. Now turn, turn."

"I'm sorry, but-"

"Oh, come on. Please? I promise not to get up. You'll still be able to see me. If you want, I can even give you the sketch. Pleeeeeeease?"

She slowly turned her head until she was facing to my right.

"No, turn your whole body. Just the head is no good."

"Mr Rehmi, I need to stay alert."

"Sarah, it's OK. I'm not going to hurt you. And even if I wanted to, I don't think I could. You have your gun. And my sword, too." I pointed with my pencil to where the black blade leaned against a tree not far from her. "If it makes you feel better, you can hold it. Make a cool pose. I'll sketch that." She didn't respond.

Faced with her persistent obstruction of my art, I finally gave up. "Well. Fine then." It was getting a bit dark for sketching anyways. By the sky, it was probably around nine or ten o'clock. "I'm going to make supper. What do you want to eat?"

"I can't-"

"You can't do your job on an empty stomach. You're probably having trouble concentrating already, right? You can watch me make supper, and then, if it makes you feel better, I'll sit on my hands while you eat. Now, what do you want? I have frozen burritos, eggs and bacon, or burgers and onions. Your call."

"Burgers, please." Her voice was quite small. She probably wasn't used to being talked down by a nineteen year old. I wasn't used to being able to talk people down, either, but I've been feeling older than usual lately. It would be nice if I'd been a smooth talker in my past life.

I got out supplies and carefully re-started the fire. I'd originally planned enough food for four days, but if I kept having guests I might run out sooner. I wasn't willing to eat without offering food, though, so it couldn't be helped.

The burgers turned out wonderfully. Since I was pretty hungry, I put several slices of bacon on them, and a fried egg as well. I'd finished mine and was sitting on my hands as promised while when Sheik returned.

"Would you like a burger too?" I asked as he came through the trees. Sarah froze, as if she'd been caught napping. She must be new. Sheik had specifically said I wasn't dangerous. He wouldn't fault her for eating.

"No thanks. At ease, Knight." Sarah relaxed sharply, and guiltily went back to her burger. "I ate already. Thanks for feeding my guard, though."

"No problem." _Old friend._ I almost added. I could see it. In his walk, in his eyes; this was the Sheik I knew. He'd used the tear! I smiled inwardly.

"Sarah, I'm relieving you. Once you're done with you're supper, please head back to the castle and report to Shad. Take the jeep I left at the road." Sheik tossed her the keys and she snagged them out of the air easily.

"Yes sir. Will you need someone to pick you up?"

"No thanks. I'll manage somehow."

"Of course. I'll be off, then."

_You mean you'll ask_ me _for a ride,_ I thought. _Freeloader! _Well, he'd come back. He waited until Sarah was out of sight before sitting down next to me.

"You used the tear?" I asked.

"Yeah." He handed the stone back to me. I unwrapped it. About half of the ruby red color was gone, leaving the rest of the gem looking like reddish glass. I fumbled a bit of twine out of my pocket and threaded it through the hole before hanging it around my neck.

"Got some memories back?"

"Yeah." He slowly unwrapped his scarf, before hooking a finger behind his ear and pulling gently. His figure blurred for a second, and then changed. Suddenly, instead of a blond-haired, red eyed youth, in front of me sat a honey haired girl with ice blue eyes. She had to be about my age. I'd seen her on television before, the celebrity of celebrities; Princess Zelda Nohansen, the country's most eligible bachelorette. Her eyes, skin, and hair had changed, and her outfit, too. Before, she'd been wearing the indigo jumpsuit of a Sheikah warrior, but now she was wearing blue jeans and a light pink sweatshirt. Even her soft-sole boots had changed to tennis shoes. I caught my breath at her sudden nearness, something in my memory jumping in recognition. She was holding a mask, a perfect likeness of Sheik's face. She set it against the stump she was sitting on and leaned back.

Uncomfortable, I stood up and paced around the fire.

"How much do you remember?" I asked, curious about what exactly the tear had done for her.

"Probably as much as you. Maybe a little less. Five hundred years ago, in order to seal magic away from the world, we replaced the Master Sword, key to the Light Realm where the Triforce waits, with that." She waved at the black sword. "In order to stop the curse from reawakening, we split our souls into three parts and sealed them into the tears so that we wouldn't reincarnate, until our successors...us, I guess...found them. But now someone's pulled the key out. You found the sword and recovered the first tear of three. It looks like trouble is brewing, Link. Sorry, Sein."

"Yeah."

"After talking with Ganon, or at least consulting his memories, I think I've started to understand just what's been going on, and it's not encouraging. He told me what you said, about Twinrova. They must be behind this." She sighed, picked up a stick and started to poking embers of the fire. "It was about a year and a half ago that the artifacts started appearing I think it's safe to assume that was about the time Twinrova...returned. Somehow, they must have found the Temple of Time and removed the black sword from the pedestal. That would have started the Artifacts surfacing, which caused the start of the war in the Deeper World. How much do you know about the Deeper World?"

"Kirio and Byrna told me a little. Magic is contained and policed. Unusual things are kept secret."

"Yeah, basically. They might not have mentioned, though, that it's divided into six tribes. Kirio and Blind are from the Sheikah and Gerudo tribes, respectively." I nodded, remembering them mentioning those names.

"The six tribes are always struggling with each other. It's normally political maneuvering and such, which is good. I rule in name, as Princess Zelda, but I have very little real power outside of Hyrule Town. Anyways, one way to measure the strength of a tribe is how much magic they have. The artifacts promised easy magic. All you have to do is find one, and bam, your magical clout rises. An excellent prospect for any tribe. Naturally, they were contested. But things didn't start to get really bad until about a year ago. That's when the war got violent." She paused for a minute.

"Do you want a marshmallow?" I interjected. She looked up, her blue eyes flashing in the firelight.

"Yeah. Marshmallows sound good." She giggled a little. "This is just so weird, Sein! I _know_ you! I understand you better than...well, people I've known for forever! It's strange, but cool."

"I know what you mean." I smiled. "This afternoon, when I was talking to you, it was hard to keep from laughing." She glanced away, embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, Sein, I must have come off as an ass. Here you are, trying to help, and I'm acting all cold and being all secretive!"

"Don't sweat it, it's no biggie. Anyways, it was fun, poking you. I didn't want to poke too hard, but I had to make you curious." I dug into the cooler, extracted the marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers, and passed them to her.

"And you knew just what to poke, too, didn't you." She giggled again. "It's weird, you know, doing this as Zelda. Sheik spends tons of time outside the castle, but the last time I got to camp as Zelda...man, I don't know how long ago that was."

I nodded. Not that I really understood, but I can commiserate, right? A dagger appeared in her hand. She carefully sharpened her stick to a point, skewered two marshmallows and held them out over the fire. The dagger vanished as mysteriously as it had appeared.

"Anyways, Ganon relayed to me basically what you'd told him. You spent enough time around Kirio and Blind to pick up on the way they fight?"

"Yeah," I agreed vehemently. "They're at each others throats!"

"Well, that's what really sparked the war off. See, they're each important in their own tribes. In some ways, they're as powerful as I am in Hyrule Town. Well, the two of them used to be quite friendly. Very close. Some people say romantic, even." Our eyes met for a second, and my heart started to beat faster. We both looked away uncomfortably. "In order to protect the peace, they formed a truce. Mutual help, and all that. In order to seal the deal, Blind lent Kirio the Fire Medallion. It was a sign of goodwill, and a promise to follow through on some agreements. Unfortunately, soon after that, incidents started happening. Magical incidents, involving fire."

"Damn." I could see where this was going. "Twinrova framed him."

"I'm convinced that's right. The Gerudo were sure that he was misusing the Fire Medallion. They came to me, but I couldn't act. Oh, sure, their case _looked _convincing, but there was no hard evidence that Kirio was behind it. But when I refused them, they went to war." She sighed, and rubbed a sleeve across her face, as if she could wipe away the last year's stress. "I tell you, Sein. I rule Hyrule Town with an iron fist. Princess Zelda sends out Sheik, her loyal enforcer, and he gets the job done. But sometimes it's a royal pain, if you'll pardon the pun." She checked her marshmallows, apparently deciding they were done, and proceeded to make and eat her s'more.

"Pass the chocolate?" I asked. Mine were looking pretty puffy themselves. I heard a rustle, and unconsciously snagged the bar out of the air.

"See? See? That's what I'm talking about!" She exclaimed. "You knew! I knew just how hard to throw it, and just where to aim, and you knew just how to catch it! How cool is that!" I smiled at her enthusiasm. It was pretty cool. I couldn't do that with any of my friends from school.

"I wonder," I said, "How we trained that skill to such a high level."

"I dunno. Lots of s'mores, maybe?"

"Maybe." I smiled across the fire.

"Anyways." She continued, around a mouthful of s'more. "The Gerudo marched on the Sheikah. I tried to keep the peace, but they didn't act in my city, and there was really nothing my contacts could do. Blind spearheaded the assault against Kirio's location. Kirio, naturally, was shocked when his trusted allies attacked. He tried to parley, but on hearing their accusations, he was enraged. He gathered his men and drove them back. That's when the Artifact War got really hot."

"That's some pretty heavy stuff."

"Yup."

"Well, if it's any consolation, with some prodding they might get over it. Twinrova shocked Blind pretty bad, and if she apologizes, Kirio might accept. I think he still sees her as a friend. They're also going to have a common enemy soon. Earlier I mentioned the monsters, right?"

"Yes."

"My shade, the one I'd left in the sword, warned me."

"Then I'm sure that info is good. Gaaaaah. Sometimes I wish life would just get _simpler_."

There was silence between us for a bit, broken only by the sound of the fire.

"Hey, when you talked to Ganon, did he give you a lump of magic power, too?" I asked, curious.

"Yeah! Because of my training I already had some magic, but now I'm much more powerful!"

"He gave me some as well, but I don't remember how to use it. Do you suppose you can teach me a little?"

She frowned thoughtfully.

"Maybe. Are you sure you don't remember any magic?"

"I don't think so. I wanted to try casting the blue diamond shield...it was called Nayru's Love, I think, but I couldn't remember how."

"Oh, that won't work that easily. Nayru's Love is fairy magic. You need to have a fairy stone to cast it with. But I might be able to teach, or at least show you, how to use magic in a sword fight." She stood up and walked away from the fire a bit. I picked up my sword and followed her. The night was cool, and the sun had since finished setting. She looked ghostly in the flickering firelight, standing under the ice cold stars.

She produced her dagger again.

"Ok, watch. Magic can be concentrated into metal. If you pretend that the energy is flowing from out of your heart and up your arm..." She broke off and stared at the dagger. After a second, the metal started to glow ever so slightly. Light blue curls of force twisted around the blade. Slowly, the blue darkened through purple to red. Zelda turned and hurled the knife. The blade flickered end-for-end, until it sunk hilt deep into a tree. Walking over, she was able to pull it out easily.

"Magic in a blade makes it cut better. It can also be flung off the blade, something like a sword beam attack. That one's difficult, but I bet you could do it."

I held my sword out and tried to imitate her. With each beat of my heart, I imagined the energy flowing into the blade. After a bit, something in my memories responded to that picture. I just needed to push like _this..._

"That's it!" Zelda clapped in excitement, as the blade began to glow blue. I stepped away, and then flexed my arm and whipped the sword forward and down.

"HAAAAAA!" I yelled.

The magical energy rippled forward, spilled off the tip of the blade and streamed away in a smooth arc. It flew across the meadow and sliced into the trees. Walking over, I saw that it had cut a good few inches into the wood.

"Wow. That's worth knowing." I commented.

"Yeah." Zelda nodded. "I knew you could do it."

"Well, Zelda, what's the plan?" I walked back to the fire and set my sword down.

"We need to get the rest of the tears. That's important. We need to at least try and unify the rest of the Deeper World, which means, as a start, reconciling Kirio and Blind. If we don't have all our people working together, the monsters will wreak havoc. I also need to get scouts out, so when we are attacked we'll at least know where. And if we have time, we should search for the inheritor of power. If we can, we should be proactive; if we think of any way to discover what Twinrova is really after, or any way to stop or frustrate them, we'd better take them."

I nodded, staring into the flames. That sounded like everything to me.

"Well," I said, "I'd been assuming, but let's make it official." I stood up, and held out a hand to her. "Are we allies? Friends?"

She stood grasped my hand, before pulling me into an embrace.

"Always." She replied softly.

I felt my face heat up, thankful for the darkness hiding my blush.

"Now," She said, turning away and picking up her mask. "Do you want to sleep here, or would you like to move to the castle for a few days?"

"Castle." I said immediately. "Sleeping under the stars is nice, but I'm going to need all the rest I can get to deal with what's coming."

She nodded and donned her mask. There was that disconcerting shimmer, and she was Sheik again.

"Could you give me a lift?" He asked, motioning to the bike.

"Sure. But you'll have to give me directions."

**:::::::::::::::::::::::::**

Like my writing? Think it sucks? Got a question? Drop a review! -Pyro


	11. Reconciliations

**Reconciliations**

**::::::::::::::::::**

Hyrule Palace was huge.

Even if Parliament actually led the country, our royal family still lived in style. Words like 'giant' could only begin to describe Zelda's mansion. It loomed in the dark. Small sections were washed in bright light or spangled with glowing windows, but mostly it was just a mysterious shadow against the stars. Sheik directed me around back to a small gate in the outer wall which he opened at the keypad. We rolled quietly through, following the driveway across what seemed like a few miles of lawn to a private garage.

Inside, I parked my bike between a sporty pink roadster and a blue camouflage jeep.

"Cars for both of my personae." Sheik said, with a smile.

"Let me guess. Sheik drives the pink one." He punched my shoulder, and I laughed. I followed him into an elevator at the back of the room, and he hit a button for a few floors down. I guess there was even more to the royal palace than I'd seen.

"Ok, Sein, here's what I'm going to do. You're going to be assigned to a squad as part of our exchange program. Often, people from different tribes volunteer to serve with the knights. We give good training, and as the nominal magic police for Hyrule Town, we see the most real action in the Deeper World. It's also a good way to build bonds between the clans; warriors who know each other are less likely to pick fights. It's one of the ways we managed to avoid all out war before this. As a guest, you'll have a place to stay, and no-one will question your involvement. I'll tell them you're an adviser, so you won't have any military duties or be asked to follow orders. Just keep your room neat and you can live here for as long as you like."

"Sounds good." The door opened, and we stepped out into a nondescript hall. A brief walk brought us to something that looked like a dispatch desk, manned by a friendly looking old guy with short brown hair and a disreputable grin. A bank of communication equipment lined the wall to his side, lights flickering randomly.

"Hey, Sheik. What's up?"

"Hey, Shad. A bunch of non-routine stuff. This is Sein. He needs a place to bunk; can you assign him to a squad? I've recruited him as an adviser, so I need to be able to get a hold of him on short notice."

"Sein, huh? What's your affiliation?" He asked me, but Sheik answered.

"Oh, he's with the knights, but he's an out-layer, not much contact with the rest of the Deeper World. This is still kind of new to him, but I needed his expertise, so I brought him in."

I nodded agreement, and held out a hand. "Shad, huh? nice to meet you." The old man had a firm grasp.

"Same here," He replied. "Now let's see, who's got a bunk...oh, I know. I'll assign you to Sarah. She's nice."

Sheik and I exchanged glances, hidden mirth in my eyes. The same Sarah who was scared to death of me all afternoon? This ought to be fun.

"Ok. You're in room 32. It's-"

"I'll show him, Shad. Don't worry. Would you send a message to Sarah, and let her know we're coming? This is kind of late, so we don't want to disturb everyone."

Shad nodded, and rattled a quick message out on his keyboard. "There. She'll be waiting for you. They're probably still up though; they have tomorrow off."

"Thanks, Shad. Don't pull an all-niter; that's an order. If you need I'll send Ashei to relieve you."

"You're welcome, Commander. Ashei should be here any minute, actually."

Sheik turned and led me past the desk. Once we were away, I tapped him on the shoulder.

"If you really want to be able to get in touch, we should swap numbers." I pulled out my cell phone.

"Oh, good plan." He produced his own cell, and we entered each other as contacts. I was tempted to put him in as Princess Zelda, just for the heck of it, but I needed to be more careful with with my cell, so I just used S. I'd know who it was.

"This place seems a bit small for an army." I mentioned.

"Yeah. Despite it's army-like appearance, the Knights are more of a police force. Add the fact that they can't really operate openly, and there's no use for a huge force even if we had the manpower. We generally only have twenty to thirty squads here at once; something over a hundred people."

"Huh." I nodded. "Oh, is this the room we're looking for?" I glanced at my phone before putting it away. "It's nearly midnight. Will this be OK?"

"Yeah, should be. Sarah ought to be up, at least, and I can't imagine all of them are in bed already. Look, the light's on." Sheik knocked once, and after listening for a muffled reply, opened the door.

The inside looked like a small apartment. Two Knights sat at a table off to one side, playing cards; another lounged on a sofa and watched TV. A small kitchen filled the third corner of the room and a doorway opened into a hallway on the other side. Sarah stood just inside the door, radiating welcome.

"Sarah, this is Sein. I'm assigning him to your squad as part of the exchange program. I recruited him as an adviser, so he doesn't have any military duty. You can feel free to ignore him for the most part."

I stepped forward and held out a hand. "I"m in your care, commander."

Sarah smile faded a little as she recognized me, but she gathered her fortitude together and took my hand.

"Um, welcome. I'll be happy to help you..." Her voice trailed off as she shook my hand. "...Sein. Let me introduce my squad." She waved to the two card players at the table. "Those are Kharl and Greg."

"Hey."

"Hi."

Each of the card players greeted me perfunctorily. Apparently this was nothing new to them.

"And Theresa." Sarah gestured at the woman watching television, who turned and waved. I nodded to each of them.

"Sarah will assign you a bunk, Sein. I'm out of here; I might need your help tomorrow, though. Look for me at breakfast." Sheik gave me a barely perceptible wink: _have fun!_ nodded once at Sarah, and turned to go. Sarah led me through the doorway off to the left and down a short hallway.

"You can sleep in this room." She opened the door and waved me in. It was small, just large enough for a bed along one wall and a closet and dresser on the other. I dropped my bag on the floor and turned back to her.

"Thanks, Sarah. Anything else I need to know?"

"Breakfast is at seven-thirty, if you want to eat in the cafeteria. Other than that...about today, no hard feelings?" She gave me a shy smile. Apparently, meeting me in some sort of official context and seeing the trust Sheik placed in me had dissolved her apprehension towards a guy who could beat up a rock troll and talk to spirits.

"None whatsoever. Now, I'm going to crash, it's been a long day."

"Ok. See you tomorrow."

"Night." She closed the door gently as she left. I pulled my phone charger out of my bag and set an alarm for seven, before taking my shoes off and hitting the light. I swear, I was out before my head hit the pillow.

**::::::::::::::::::::**

The next morning I met up with Sheik in the cafeteria. I'd slept well, better than I expected in a new bed. Being exhausted probably helped. I walked to breakfast with the rest of the squad, but saw Sheik at one of the tables, so I joined him. No one was staring or anything, so I guess it wasn't unusual to see him eating with the men, as it were. I filled a plate with goodies from the buffet and headed over.

"So, what's our agenda for today?"

"First, we need to meet with Kirio and Blind. After that we'll look at heading after another tear." I nodded my agreement before digging into my food.

"I'm surprised you eat here." I said, quietly. "I'd thought Princess Zelda would have her own cook."

"Oh, she does." He replied, sneaking me a grin. "But for some reason, he's a bit apprehensive about frying up bacon, eggs, and sausage for the royal princesses breakfast." He casually waved a rasher at me. "I don't know how he thinks it will hurt me, with all the exercise I get, but it's too difficult to bother explaining. Also, I like eating with my men." He waved a hand, encompassing the room. "It builds solidarity. Not an army, remember?" I nodded, my mouth full of cantaloupe. "I see you still prefer a sweet breakfast." I look down at my plate of fruit, yogurt, and syrupy pancakes.

"Hey, sugar gets you going in the morning."

"Yeah, whatever." We shared a grin.

"Ready?" He asked, after watching me finish my last bite of pancake.

"When you are."

"Ok, let's go talk to the prisoners. "

He led the way out of the cafeteria, and we took an elevator down a level. We stepped into the hall and he knocked on one of the nearby doors. After a bit it swung open to reveal Kirio, his blond hair still messy from bed, wearing a bathrobe, with a cup of coffee in his hand.

"Not a morning person?" I asked with a chuckle.

"You!" I stepped quickly to the side, dodging a spray of hot coffee. "You work for Sheik?"

"Um. Work WITH Sheik." I remembered storming precipitously out of the coffee shop, and tried to think of some sort of explanation that would account for my behavior without making me look crazy or just plain malicious. Thankfully, Sheik stepped in.

"He's one of my out-layers." He glanced at me. _Just go with it._ I shrugged one of my shoulders, ever so slightly. _Fine, but explain later. _It was still weird, being able to communicate so instinctively with someone I barely remembered spending time with; it was the biggest deja-vu of my life. Still cool, though.

"I...see." he nodded slowly, seeming only half convinced. "Well, Sheik, how can I help you?"

"I'm going to be having a conference with Blind soon. I'd like to talk with you at the same time."

His blue eyes hardened. Apparently he thought 'conference' was code for 'interrogation'.

"Far be it from me to refuse my gracious host." Translation: I'm your prisoner, I'll do what you ask. "When?"

"Well, I haven't checked on Blind yet, but how about...half an hour?" He nodded his agreement. "Meet us at the end of the hall."

Once the door had closed, I turned to Sheik.

"What's an out-layer?"

"Someone right on the edge of the Deeper World. Often, they're people who have interesting skills or lots of experience who've gone into retirement, or someone who could be considered part of the Deeper World but don't know about it yet for some reason. Like you. They're part of the Deeper World, technically, but they're really not that involved. So, your sword skill, but lack of knowledge, can be explained to some extent by the idea that you really didn't want to have much to do with the Deeper World, and lived as an out-layer."

"Oh. That makes sense, I guess."

"It'll work. Since there's no specific designation for out or in, all sorts of weird people turn up in the Deeper World."

"Huh. Ok."

We'd been walking as we talked. Now he stopped in front of another door, and rapped lightly. This one opened almost immediately, revealing Blind in sweats. She was pulling ear-buds out from under her rust-red hair, but froze when she saw me.

"Hello Sein, Sheik." She nodded to each of us politely, but I could see she was curious as to why I was there.

"Morning, Blind." Sheik said. "I see you've met my out-layer, Sein. We're holding a conference, the two of us and Kirio, and we'd like you to be there."

"When?"

"Would a half hour work?"

"If you can get me some breakfast, that would be fine."

Sheik nodded. "Meet us in the room at the end of the hall."

"Okay. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to shower." Sheik smiled, and let her close the door. We walked down the hall to an unused apartment. Sheik made a call on his cell and someone showed up with a pot of coffee and a tray of pastries and fruit.

I glanced around; the apartment was quite luxurious, much nicer than the Knights rooms.

"You could have put me up in here." I mentioned.

"Hah. Sein, these are cells. Even though they look nice, wouldn't being locked in kind of bother you?"

"Aha, yeah, maybe."

Blind showed up first, her hair slightly damp. She was wearing khakis and a dress shirt, and promptly sat down at the table and grabbed a doughnut.

"So, Sein, how long have you worked for Sheik?" She asked, after a minute or two. I glanced at Sheik. He twitched an eyebrow. _Doesn't matter. _

"Not long."

"Well, I'm impressed. You set up quite a nice little sting on us." She locked eyes with me, flashing fury. _Damn, she's angry._ But I guess it made sense; from where she was standing, it must look like I'd set her and Kirio up, facing them off against each other so Sheik could step in and arrest them.

"You misunderstand, Blind." Sheik interjected. "He means not long, as in since last night. He honestly had no connections before that. What attracted me to your position, and also probably attracted Twinrova, was the way you were recklessly pouring magic power into the Book of Mudora. You didn't honestly think that Princess Zelda would miss that display of power, did you?"

Blind grimaced, as if she'd tasted something bitter.

"He told you what happened?"

"All of it." Sheik nodded. "One of my Knights found him in the woods, babbling about magic and monsters. I calmed him down quite a bit and once I found out about his skills, I decided to invite him into the Knights." I kicked his foot under the table. _Babbling? I'll get you for that!_ He smiled, every so slightly. _Just try._ "And, well, here we are!" He smiled brightly, just as Kirio shuffled through the door. He'd changed out of his bathrobe, but still clutched his coffee mug. His eyes lit up and he accelerated a bit as he saw the carafe on the table. Once he'd poured himself a fresh cup, the conference began in earnest.

"Now, as I was just telling Blind, I found this young man wandering in the woods last night. He claimed to have escaped from a witch. After calming him down a bit, I got a coherent story out of him, and invited him to join the Knights. Sein, would you please tell us what you saw, when you were hiding under the table in Blind's basement?"

So I told my story, starting with when I'd stormed out of the cafe (was that really only two days ago?) and ending when I'd met Sheik in the woods. I skipped the bit about the sword, claiming I crawled under the table when things started getting really rough, and also cutting out the tear, skipping straight to when Sheik walked into my camp the first time.

"...so, he made a couple suggestions, and I decided to accept his offer of protection. And here we are."

Kirio had been listening intently, taking in all the bits he'd missed. Which had been most of them, honestly. Blind seemed much less interested, but a few times I saw a flash in her eyes.

"Now, Blind and Kirio, I have a few things that I think you might like to know. First off, Kirio, I'm convinced that Twinrova, the two witches who stole the Book of Mudora, framed you." There was a flash of interest on Blind's face at that suggestion. I couldn't tell if she was pleased or angry, but she fixed her eyes on Sheik. "What do you to know of the histories of the Hero?" Sheik asked.

"Not much." Blind admitted.

"A bit." Kirio offered.

"Well," Sheik said. "As the ruler of the Deeper World, Princess Zelda has access to every pertinent document, many of them firsthand sources. I'd like each of you to read this." He picked up a folder I hadn't noticed before. It had been on the tray, underneath the coffee carafe. He opened it and pulled out two pages of paper, each edged with the telltale black borders of a photocopied book. "This is an account of a fight between the witches called Twinrova, and the Hero of Time, recorded by the Sage of Spirit at that time. As you can see, both of them wield elemental powers. One of them uses ice, the other fire. Sein saw both of these the other night. You too, Blind?" Blind nodded slowly, absorbing the words.

"I'm convinced," Sheik continued, "That Twinrova is trying to awaken some artifact we haven't seen yet. Both of you know that the artifacts awakening are becoming more and more powerful, right? The first few were quite weak, but the more recent ones have been pretty spectacular." They both nodded, intrigued now. "It's my opinion that Twinrova is planning something disastrous. I'm convinced that they wanted to start a war so that we would search for and awaken the artifacts faster, getting them closer to the one they want to use. Somehow they discovered your treaty, and they used that knowledge to turn you two against each other, hoping your antagonism would speed the process." Sheik, done speaking, rested his hands in his lap, and watched the two of them.

Throughout the speech, Blind's expression had moved from guarded, to confused, to worried. Now she looked stricken. Kirio's expression had varied as well, but he now looked apprehensive. He was watching Blind, probably wondering what she was about to do.

"I'm sorry." Her voice was husky and low. She turned towards Kirio, and bowed her head in shame. "I'm very sorry. I apologize for my accusations; you had every right to be angry with me." She must have been thinking over what Twinrova had said, about how she'd drawn her own conclusions on what they had done in the past. She'd considered the idea that she'd been manipulated into hurting her friend. It wasn't new, but it still hurt.

I saw the tension in Kirio melt into relief.

"I forgive you." He smiled. "It's OK. We can work it out. I don't blame you, and I probably would have come to the same conclusions in your place."

Both of them turned to Sheik.

"Thank you for this." Kirio said. "For clearing my name."

"Thanks." Blind added.

"You're welcome." Sheik smiled back. "But before we celebrate too much, I have one more thing to add. I'm certain that any day now, the Deeper World is going to come under siege."

The two of them glanced at each other, surprised.

"Princess Zelda is convinced that the amount of magic that's in the world now, increased by the awakening of the artifacts, is enough for monsters to start forming. We already have one confirmed case out in the woods where we found Sein, and we're convinced that if Twinrova is plotting something it won't take long for them to start gathering monsters to their side. The whole Deeper World needs to be united, now more than ever before. If we want to keep our secrets and authority, we need to be able to react quickly and decisively to any sort of monster appearance."

"Leave it to us, commander." Blind said, firmly. She reached out and put her hand on Kirio's shoulder. "We'll work together to protect Hyrule Town."

"I appreciate that, Blind. But I was serious; the whole Deeper World needs to work together on this. The Knights will work along side the Gerudo and Sheikah, and I'm planning on summoning the leaders of the other three tribes as well. I hope that together, we can cover the whole country. If you two are willing, I'd like you to remain in the castle for now. We can move you to better quarters, of course. When the other tribal representatives show up, I'd greatly appreciate your help with convincing them."

Blind and Kirio nodded.

"Can we send Byrna back?" Kirio asked. "I need to relay this decision to my men as soon as possible."

"Me too." Blind added. "Our tribes need to know what's going on."

"Of course." Sheik nodded. "The three of you are welcome to come and go as you please. Thank you for your time. Now, I really do need to send summons to the rest of the tribes." He stood, and I followed him. We left Kirio and Blind there, sitting together silently.

"What do you think they'll do?" I asked, once we were back in the elevator.

"Oh, I'm convinced that they'll make up with each other." The voice wasn't Sheik's, but rather Zelda's. She held the mask in her left hand, looking at the elevator buttons thoughtfully before decisively pushing one. "Blind felt driven by her responsibilities, while Kirio was defending himself. They'll get over it. In the meantime Sein, have you done your training today?" I shook my head.

"I didn't have time this morning."

"Ok. Well, while I'm sending summons, you can hit the gym."

"Sounds good." I grinned as the elevator sped off into the dark.

**:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::**

Sorry this chapter was rather boring, but it needed to be done! In the future, I'll try and integrate the necessary plot bits with the interesting plot bits more evenly. There's action in the next chapter, though, so look forward to it.

Questions? Comments? Snide remarks? Leave a review! I'd be happy to clarify any point that confuses you, since I'm the first to admit I can be a poor communicator. -Pyro.


	12. The Inheritor of Power

**The Inheritor of Power**

**:::::::::::::**

"You have your own gym?" I stood, astounded. The elevator had climbed several stories, and when it stopped we'd stepped out into what Zelda told me was her private wing of the palace.

"And study. And rec room. And garden. And library. And butler-maid-nurse-bodyguard. Her name is Impa."

"Holy crow. Is this what happens to our taxes?" She giggled a little, but turned to me seriously.

"No. My family actually IS this rich. Partially because we've ruled the Deeper World for years, but mainly because we're smart."

"Haaaaah. Well, I can't really argue with that. Oh, I don't have my sword."

"It's still on your bike, right? We'll go get it." She led me through a twisting maze of hallways; her rooms extended a long way. Finally, we stepped into her garage.

"So, do you, as Sheik, have another set of rooms?"

"Actually, yeah. There's a small set reserved for me in the Knight's level. I don't use them much, but sometimes I crash there. Most people think Sheik never sleeps anyways."

"Unless your administration style has changed, you probably don't get what you need."

She grinned, a little guiltily. She'd always been the sort to put others ahead of her own needs. I unhooked the sword from the back of my bike, grimacing at the clumsy wire hanger.

"I don't suppose you have a proper sheathe for this?"

"I just might, at that. Or I can get one."

As we walked back in, she opened her cell phone and dialed. This one was different from Sheiks. I wondered if it transformed, or if she magically had two different sets of pockets. By the time we got back, there was a tall woman with white hair waiting for us. She was dressed in a dark blue suit.

"Sein, this is Impa." I nodded, recognizing her as a Sheikah, inheriting the post of Zelda's guardian. They were all called Impa, for some reason. "Impa, this is Sein. I told you about him yesterday. Sein, show her your sword." I handed the blade over. She took it with practiced ease, swinging it gently once to get a feel for it. "Can you find him a scabbard, and a belt?"

"Of course." She replied, smiling pleasantly. "What style would you like?"

"Something I can hang over my shoulder, if it's possible."

"I'll see to it." She nodded decisively, handed the sword back to me and headed for the elevator.

"Now, let me show you the gym."

**::::::::::::::**

I was working slowly through my sword exercises in the gym, while Zelda drafted summons in her study. I had finished most of my workout, and was moving through the last set of forms when the door opened. I stopped and looked up to see Impa standing there. She held a black scabbard.

I walked over and accepted it from her. It was made of hard plastic and nylon web instead of leather and steel, but it looked like it would fit fine. I slid the harness over my head, and frowned.

"Is there a way to switch the side?"

"Oh, you're left handed. Of course." I handed it back to her and let her adjust it. When I put it back on, the scabbard hung from my left shoulder. I sheathed the sword smoothly. It fit well. I cinched the straps, and worked my arms around; it was pretty comfortable.

"Perfect. This will work great. Thanks, Impa."

"You're welcome. Zelda said that when you're done, you should come to the study."

"Ok, I'll do that. I just want a shower, and I'll be there."

Impa nodded, and headed out. I turned back towards the bathroom attached to the gym, digging through the stuff I'd grabbed from my bike for a clean shirt.

**::::::::::::::::::::**

I wandered towards the study, wondering just how many bathrooms there were in this wing of the palace. Four or five, at least. I mean, the gym and her bedroom were two, and there were probably one or two around. But I'd seen so many rooms. Maybe there were more?

I gave up my useless speculation as I reached the study. Zelda sat at a huge desk with neat piles of paperwork scattered across it. It curled all the way around her, a vast expanse of leather shingled with white documents. She sat in a swivel chair, leaning over three neatly written letters.

"Zelda?"

She looked up and shoved them off to the side, before pulling a map out and spreading it in front of her. She motioned for me to sit down. I pulled up a chair on the other side of the desk.

"Let's see your phone." I pulled it out of my pocket and unlocked it, setting it in front of her. She opened the application that showed the tears, and pulled a couple of tacks out of a drawer. Carefully checking the map, she pushed the pins through it in two places.

"These are the two remaining tears. Mine is here," she motioned to the blue pin, "in Lanayru's spring. It's in the territory of the Zoran tribe. Although it's a bit of a trip, we have strong connections with them, and getting there shouldn't be a problem. Yours is here, though." She motioned to the green pin. "In Faron Province. Not only is it heavily wooded and mountainous, it's also the province of the oddest of the tribes, the Korok. We don't have bad relations with them, or good relations, really. We hardly ever hear from them, and when they send messengers, it's always the same person. But we can't risk aggravating them." She frowned for a minute, as if trying to remember something. "So here's my suggestion. I'm sending these out today." She tapped the letters. "It will take most of the day, but let's head to Lanaryu tomorrow and collect my tear. By the time we get back, we should have heard back from the Korok. They're punctual, at least. If everything goes well, we can head out for your tear the next day without angering them."

"Sounds good." I nodded.

"So that's taken care of." She nodded in satisfaction. "Now, do you want some lunch?"

"Sure."

"Ok." She pulled out her Sheik mask. "Lets get something to eat."

**:::::::::::::::::::::**

"You always did like greasy food," I accused. We were sitting in a small restaurant. Sheik had exchanged his warrior garb for a more normal civilian set of blue jeans, sneakers, and a polo shirt. His red eyes might still draw attention, but he could at least pretend to blend into a crowd this way. He was casually wolfing down a cheeseburger, while I finished off a delicious roast beef sandwich.

"Hey, grease is good! This is where I normally take my Knight captains, when we need to have a little one-on-one. Quality time makes for good management."

I was about to reply, when his phone rang.

"Sheik speaking."

I watched curiously as he nodded, grunted, and snapped the phone shut.

"Come on, we're going." He stood suddenly and pulled me out of my chair, stuffing the rest of his burger into his mouth.

"What about paying?"

"I have a tab here; they'll bill me. There's been a confirmed sighting."

Monsters.

I'd been expecting it ever since my shade had warned me the other day. Maybe part of the reason Sheik had left the afternoon empty was in case this sort of thing came up?

We moved quickly, threading our way through the tables and out the door. Sheik's blue camouflage jeep was parked right next to the entrance, with the top down. He leaped in and started it immediately. I'd barely gotten buckled before we were rolling, the tires squealing as we swerved quickly out of the parking lot.

"Where?" I asked.

"Near the edges of town, a small strip mall. Walking skeletons are attacking an antique store."

"Stalfos. After an artifact?"

"Nothing confirmed, but probably." I could hear impatience in his voice. We were moving fast. He pulled onto the freeway and accelerated sharply, dodging through traffic. We sat in silence for a few seconds.

"Blind and Kirio are headed there, too!" he shouted, over the wind. "They're bringing three squads of knights. I hope this doesn't get too ugly!" I nodded in agreement. The last thing we wanted was a pitched battle in the middle of town. Or even on the outskirts of town.

Sheik's driving got us there quickly.

As he'd said, there were stalfos there. A semi-circle of them, several corpses deep barricaded the door of the antique shop. They were being attacked by Knights wielding short clubs and carrying round shields. The neighborhood seemed pretty deserted; I wasn't surprised. Walking skeletons would have scared me off too, not long ago. Two nondescript white vans sat in the parking lot. As we were pulling up, a third one sped to a stop and the back opened, spilling out four Knights carrying shields and short clubs. Blind and Kirio leaped out of the cab, and dashed into the fray.

Kirio was wearing his magical boots again. _They must be an artifact of some sort,_ I thought as I watched him. As soon as he touched the ground he was running, accelerating faster than I remembered. He reached the battle in a split second and leaped, somehow jumping high enough to fly over the heads of the Knights and the Stalfos. He landed inside the semicircle and started kicking.

I'd been on the receiving end of those kicks once, but this time they seemed even more vicious. It might have been the boots he was wearing, but the skeletons seemed to explode when he touched them, disintegrating into flying clouds of bones and dust. In a matter of seconds there was a path through the blockade, and the Knights moved to encircle the skeletons, pushing them back against the walls on either side of the door to secure the pathway. Blind dashed to the door and was about to yank it open, but Sheik yelled for her to wait.

We jogged up to the door. The Knights had finished overwhelming the skeletons by now, leaving only piles of crushed, dry bones. Some of them stepped back towards the vans, heading for first aid kits. At least one clutched a broken arm. Sheik motioned to Kirio and Blind, signaling us to gather around.

"Listen. I don't know what we'll find in there, but I'm going to tell the Knights to wait here. I don't think that store is very big, and weight of numbers won't be much of an advantage in a tight space. The four of us will go in and deal with it. I'm taking point. Spread out once we're in there and try to figure out what we're facing." The three of us nodded. I noticed Blind glance at the hilt sticking up over my shoulder; her eyes widened in recognition, but she didn't say anything.

"Ok. Let's go. Watch for civilians; if anyone was shopping, they're still in there." He swung the door open and darted in with the three of us hot on his heels. He was right; the inside of the store was barely two aisles wide. The shelves were stacked with stuff right up to the roof, which was high enough that the eight-foot tall skeletons in the aisles didn't need to duck when they raised their swords and charged us.

"Stalfos Knights!" I yelled, catching an affirmative grunt from Sheik. There were two skeletons in each aisle. Blind engaged one, while Kirio took on the one behind, leaping up and running along a shelf to get past her. They were forcing the monsters to fight back to back in the narrow aisle. Sheik was holding his own against the one in front of us, but the fourth one was free, and I saw it turn towards the back of the store. As it did I thought I heard a muffled shriek.

"There's someone back there! Give me a leg up!" I yelled. Sheik threw himself backwards, rolling away from the fight and coming up in a crouch with his hands clasped in a stirrup. I dashed forward and placed my foot there, leaping as he heaved upwards. I soared over the head of the skeleton he'd been fighting, confusing it enough for him to get an attack in, and landed hard on the concrete behind it. I whipped my sword out and lunged for the last one as it rattled towards the back of the shop.

I missed.

Well, not really; on a human, the blow would have killed. Instead, my sword went between it's bones. I'd stuck the blade right into it's ribcage. It clattered harmlessly, doing no damage whatsoever, but making it angry. I tried to retreat as it turned, but it caught me by the front of my shirt and threw me forward. Again, I soared.

I kept a hold of my sword somehow, trying to guard my head as I hit the wall. I was a little surprised when I went right through it with a crunch of shattering sheet rock. It was a thin interior wall, and I'd somehow missed hitting a brace. I glanced around, finding myself in a small office. There was the civilian, a red-headed woman that I half recognized, hiding under the desk. That's all I saw in the half-second of stillness, before a giant bony arm reached through the hole I'd come through and grabbed for me.

I danced to the side and wrapped both hands around the hilt of my sword, slicing this time, instead of stabbing. My sword connected solidly, hacking a good sized chip out of the bone. The redheaded girl shrieked as the arm was retracted, and the skeleton slammed bodily through the wall, making the hole even bigger, and tearing out a section of the supporting woodwork. It swung at me, hard. I brought my sword up in time to guard, but I was off balance, and the force threw me sideways. As I stumbled, the tear, still strung around my neck, flew over my head and landed in the lap of the screaming redhead.

There was a flash, and the screaming stopped.

With no time to think, I leaped to my feet and faced off against the skeleton again. Just as it was winding up for another blow though, I felt a firm hand on my shoulder.

"Leave this one to me, Link." A high clear voice said. Not a voice I knew. Not a hand I knew. But I knew those words, and that tone. I sheathed my sword, and stepped back, taking a good look at the Inheritor of Power.

Gannon had reincarnated as a girl.

"Rose!" I gasped, suddenly realizing that I _did_ recognize her. She was in my class! She was tall, with dusky skin, green eyes, and brilliant red hair, but after that, all similarity to the King of the Gerudo ceased. She was slender and quite pretty, and moved with a smooth grace. She did have his aura, though; somehow, she was making jeans and a t-shirt exude a sense of danger. It might have had something to do with the way she was destroying a skeleton with her bare hands.

Gannon had always been the one of us with the most raw power. Rose crinkled her perfectly shaped eyebrows slightly, and golden flame, pure destructive magical power, flowed down her arms and gathered in her palms. Her first blow shattered the monsters ribcage, that dainty fist falling with the force of a pile-driver as she stepped through the motions of a deadly martial art more than five hundred years old. The second blow blew the skull into white dust and fragments. Damaged as it was, the skeleton still retaliated, both arms whipping inward, dual blows scything with untold ferocity.

She caught them. Those arms that had flung me across the room, one from each side, stopped dead when they touched her outstretched hands, the golden fire flickering and dancing across her skin. She grasped them in turn, wrapping one hand around each wrist, and concentrated.

Golden Immolation, Gannon had called it. The name sprang to mind as I saw the fire in her hands engulf the skeleton in an eye blink, burning so ferociously it didn't even smoke. It was gone in seconds.

"Sein!" Suddenly, she was a normal girl again, facing the fright of being cornered by a giant skeleton. She whimpered slightly, and looked at her hands. "How did I do that? Who is Link? What's going on?"

I reached out and gently grasped her trembling shoulders, steadying her.

"It'll be OK. I'll explain what's happening. Just wait here for a bit. I need to go see how the fight is going up front, but you'll be fine. I'll stop any more of them, Ok?" She nodded and sat down on the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees.

"I...I think they were after that." She pointed at a ball and chain sitting on the desk. I picked it up and hefted it. Yup, this was definitely an artifact. "Ok. I'm going to take this. I'll be back in a bit."

Sheik was still fighting his opponent. Trying to slice a supernatural skeleton up with daggers didn't seem to be working so well. I dangled the ball from two feet of chain, whipped it in one vicious circle, and yelled "Sheik, down!" just as I let fly. He glimpsed what I was doing, and dived backwards and to the side. The artifact, probably once a Darknut's weapon, blasted through the Stalfos Knight like it was hardly there.

As soon as the ball left my hand it had expanded, growing spikes and inflating until it was the size of a bowling ball. Bone chips cascaded down around Sheik as the weapon sailed over him, thudding into the cement wall at the front of the shop. It had blown the skeleton's spine and ribcage apart. The legs clattered for a second before falling over, joining the skull and the arms on the floor. I yanked the chain and the sphere shrank to fist size again, and came flying back. I caught it and turned to look down the other aisle.

Kirio had switched his boots at some point. Instead of leather with wings at the ankles, his shoes were now steel, and they looked like they weighted considerably more. He had already decimated the skeleton in front of him, and as I watched he leaped into the air and unleashed a kick that shattered the skull of the one Blind was fighting. Satisfied that they didn't need my help, I motioned urgently to Sheik. He leaped up and dashed into the back room, where I gestured to Rose who was still sitting on the floor with her arms wrapped around her knees. I dropped to my hands and knees and threw a hand under the desk, coming out with the tear. It was completely empty, just a large, reddish glass bead shaped like a comma. I handed it to Sheik.

"She's going to need a good sleep before she knows what's going on. Let's get her out of here." Sheik nodded. "Her name is Rose. She's in my class at school. She killed one of the skeletons, using Golden Immolation."

Sheik whistled slightly, impressed. Rose looked up, confused. We carefully pulled her to her feet, and guided her out to the parking lot. Sheik threw a few orders at the knight captains, and said a few things to Kirio and Blind while I bundled Rose into the back of the jeep. She huddled in a corner quietly. Sheik leaped into the drivers seat, and we were off with a shriek of tires.

**::::::::::::::::::::**

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Looking back on this, I'm not so sure about making the plot choices I did...but I think it was fun, which is the important part. As I've said before, I didn't spend a lot of time planning out the plot for this story.

Well, if you have questions or comments, let me know!

~Pyro.


	13. Nostalgia

**Nostalgia in the Park**

**::::::::::::::::::::**

Once we were far enough away to have a little privacy, we found a public park and stopped. I helped Rose out of the jeep while Sheik left to find something for her to eat, saying that magic really took it out of you and she probably hadn't had lunch.

I led her to a picnic table and we sat down. I didn't say anything for a while. She sat there and shivered, trying to work out what had happened, I think. Finally, she looked up at me. Her eyes were sea-green.

"Link?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah." She looked over at the jeep.

"Zelda?"

"Yeah. She's finding you something to eat."

"Good. I'm starved." Suddenly, her shoulders relaxed and her posture firmed up. She stretched and yawned.

"Sein, this is sooooo weird."

"I bet." I nodded. She was the first of us to recover the largest set of her memories and magic power.

"I remember being a man! A guy! We were good friends, you me and Zelda! We..." She paused, looking at the sword I was carrying. "We did it? It worked?"

"Yeah." I grinned again. "It worked. I told you so."

"Hah!" She threw her head back and laughed, an unrestrained laugh that I recognized both from school and from the half-remembered dream that was my past life. "Hee hee hee. You did, didn't you?" She wiped tears away from her eyes. "Oh, Sein, it's good to be back."

"what's it like?" I couldn't help asking. "Remembering?"

"Oh, it's crazy. Most everything we did, I remember clearly, right up until we cast the spell. Then everything is a blur. There's a few bits of clarity; I remember watching you beat that troll up, and you and Zelda visiting, but nothing else. Then there's the rest of my memories, after that. It's not like being a new person, or like being two different people; it's more like picking up an instrument you haven't played in years, or going back to something you used to do all the time. It's instinctive, and it's _you,_ but it's rusty. Like you're waking up. Or falling asleep. Or something you've been trying to remember for days, just popping into your head. Man, things have changed." She pulled out a cell phone, and checked the time. "Argh. How long do we have until things about the store are going to need to be dealt with?"

"I'm not sure. Once Sheik is back, we can ask him."

We sat in silence for a minute, and then Rose said "Bench."

"Children." I replied. It was a game we'd played, way back. Look around, pick something. Say its name. The next person had to pick something that started with the same sound.

"Neck."

"Clouds."

"Sheik!" I glanced around in confusion as she leaped up and threw her arms around Sheik. He smiled, put the hot dog he was carrying down on the table and embraced her in turn.

"It's good to see you." He said softly. "But is it just me, or are you a girl now?"

"I know!" She sat down again, laughing, and picked up the food. She started wolfing it down, talking between mouthfuls. "It's weird. I remember being a guy, but now I'm a girl! Well, I guess I'm not as tightly bound to my role as you might be, Princess."

"I guess." Sheik replied.

"So, here's what's up." I said, and filled her in on everything that had happened since I spoke to Ganon's shade, inside the tear.

"So, you're planning on looking for Zelda's tear tomorrow?" She asked.

"Yup, that's the plan." I said.

"I'm coming." She pronounced.

"Of course." Sheik said. "All for one, and one for all, right? Or something like that."

"You bet! Also, right now, I'm pretty sure I could outfight both of you put together." She said, seriously. "You, Zelda, were generally our support. And you, Link, have only got a fraction of your old strength."

"Right." I said, agreeing.

"Hey, Rose." Sheik interjected. "I didn't get the chance to ask you this when I spoke to your shade, but in your last life, weren't you and Link enemies?"

"Hah." She snorted. "Well, I guess that's not entirely wrong. Ok, Zelda, how much do you remember about the time split?"

"Not much..."

"As expected; the girl doesn't even remember her own handiwork!" Rose laughed.

"Hey!" Sheik said, defensive. "You've got an unfair advantage, here!"

I chuckled, watching them. Somehow, this felt really comfortable.

"Ok, ok, fine. Well, here's what happened. Yes, Sein and I fought. See, history happened three times. The first time, Sein and I fought, and I won. You, however, had this fancy little flute, a blue glass ocarina that could bend time itself to your whim. So you went back in time and changed things. The second time, Link and I fought, and he won."

"Ah." I shivered; for a second, I'd seen myself standing on top of an island, surrounded by a ring of flames. I was fighting a pig faced monster who wielded giant swords.

"Remember?" her green eyes pierced me.

"A little."

"That was a bad fight. But at the end, you won. And when I was beat, I looked back, and I saw what had happened. You two," She waved a finger at us, "You two are cursed. Forever ago, so long that it makes five hundred years look like a split second, someone cursed the two of you. This isn't the first time you've been re-incarnated; far from it. Someone pronounced these words: 'An incarnation of my hatred shall ever follow your kind, dooming them to wander a blood-soaked sea of darkness for all time!' And just like that, he tied you to his curse. Every time you've reincarnated, you've been hurt. And hurt, and hurt."

I nodded, remembering that my shade had said the same things.

"But I was not included in that curse. No, I had nothing to do with you two, until Twinrova discovered you." Her eyes darkened, and again I saw the hate for the two witches that burned in her soul. "Those two manipulated me. They dragged me away from the Gerudo, and twisted me until I was almost the same as the person who cursed you, and _then_ the curse took over. I wasn't a free man again until you stuck a sword through me." She motioned towards me. "Thanks for that, by the way."

"You're welcome."

"Well, I realized what I had to do. While I lay dying, I grabbed everything that was left of my magic power, and I poured it into my diadem. It was a topaz; I wore it here." She tapped her forehead. "I wrote myself a message, and I gave it to you." She motioned to Sein. "Then, when you, Princess, re-wrote history again, it was on its way."

"I took it to the younger you?" I asked, a vision of a cracked yellow gem the size of my thumb flashing through my mind.

"Yeah. It only took one look, and I understood what Twinrova was trying to do. I went after them like a shot. Unfortunately, I went off half-cocked. They got away. Well, long story short, after that, we were friends." She nodded to Sein. "As I said before, we rattled all around, more often then not with you, too, Zelda. Or Sheik, as the occasion called." She rested her chin in her palm as she finished the last of the hot dog. "Anyways, that's about all of it, until you came up with your crazy scheme to break the curse."

"Do you know how the sealing spell we cast worked?" Sheik asked.

"Not really, no." She frowned. "That must be in my other memories. Or maybe I just didn't think it was important. You thought that one up, Zelda. It was a doozy, too. All I know is that we locked the Triforce up, threw the Master Sword into the light realm after it, and buttoned the door up tight. Pulling that sucker out of the pedestal started the magic flowing again, and the more artifacts wake up, the more magic there is to go around. But you know all of that."

"Yeah."

"Well, I'm going to need an alibi." Rose said. "I don't want anyone asking _me _questions about how the store got that way. What are we going to say?"

"Do you work there?" Sheik asked.

"Yeah. It's my summer job. It's a good job, too."

"Is there any reason you might have stepped out of the store?"

"Umm. Once in a while, I do leave for lunch."

"Tell them you left for lunch, and when you got back, that's the way you found it. It's not really false, either. Our people will handle everything else." Sheik waved at the paper boat the hotdog had come in. "You want to head back? I'll call your boss, if you like. I can sound pretty official."

"...yeah, maybe we'd better do that." Rose nodded her head, agreeing with Sheik. Sheik called up Kirio and Blind as we walked, and explained that the girl they'd rescued turned out to be a citizen of the deeper world. She told them we were going to help her with explanations for a bit. She called Shad, and told him the same thing.

Rose and I rode in the back as Sheik drove. When we reached the store there was yellow police tape around front, so Rose let us in the side door. We made our way back into the office, stepping through the hole in the wall carefully. She searched through the desk until she came up with the full name and home phone number of the owner. Sheik's eyebrows rose as he saw who it was.

"Pierre Dampe?" he said. "Is that right?"

"Yeah, why?" Rose answered.

"This is going to be easier than I thought. Dampe is one of our men. He handles all sorts of relics and stuff for us. No wonder he had an artifact. There might even be a few more in his piles of junk here. I'll just have Impa deal with this; no need for me to get involved." He made one more call.

"Well, that's sorted out." He said, nodding in satisfaction. "Now, are you going to need an alibi for tomorrow, too?" He looked at Rose. "Do you want us to drop you at your house?"

"No." Rose said. "I'll drive myself home. As for tomorrow, my parents don't keep too close track of me. I think I can get away with being away all day. Actually, I should probably be heading home now. I don't want them to worry about me."

"Do you need a sword or anything?" I asked, as we walked out of the store.

"No, I should be fine."

"Ok."

We stood around for a second, and then awkwardly split up.

"See you tomorrow."

We watched as she got into her car, a rusty little beater, and drove off.

"It's good to have the cavalry behind us." I said.

"Yeah." Sheik nodded. "He always was the guy for heavy hitting." We climbed into the jeep, and took off towards the castle, for supper and sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

**:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::**

Espeon: Thanks for that, I'll try to spell it with one 'n' from now on. I can't remember what I used before either, but I can't be bothered to go back and normalize it; people will know who I'm talking about.

Kyle; I haven't decided exactly how much Hyrule imports and exports. They're definitely a producing country, but how the economy works now, though, I haven't completely decided. The real restriction is how big Hyrule is. Since I've originally imagined it as a fairly small country, (about the size of California) they don't produce everything themselves, and instead trade with the countries around them. Make of this what you will.

Part of the reason that the news and police are not responding how you expect them to is that the Deeper World is not completely separate from the Flat World. If you looked into the Hyrule Police department, you might find a Department for Magical Incidents. It might not be called that, but if something like this happens, it's their job to deal with it. They would contact the Knights, and hand it over to them. (This is how the Knights got to the scene, here.) So, magical incidents are not dealt with by 'flat' police. In the same manner, would you take a news corporation seriously if it reported that an antique store was attacked by walking skeletons? I know I'd have problems with that. So maybe they do report this, but not as what it is.

Remember, the separation of the Deeper World is not something that's mandated. It's more a separation of convenience. They are not _trying_ to keep secrets; people just don't want to deal with things that are outside the scope of their frames of reference. The average citizen does their own filtering. They don't need to spend a lot of time working a media or propaganda machine to keep people from noticing magic; most people don't believe in it, and therefore don't notice it anyways, or deny it when they do. That's part of the concept of an outlier; someone who believes in magic, but has no real connections to it. This system is something that's going to be strained by the influx of magic and magic items; soon, if nothing is done, (maybe in my next story, if I write a sequel) people are going to be _forced _to recognize the existence of magic. What this will do to the modern civil structure...we'll see.

This is, at least, the way it works in my story. I can only hope that what happens doesn't damage your suspension of disbelief enough for you to stop reading.

Also, I agree; Minish Cap definitely has better graphics than ALTTP, although I also really enjoyed playing Phantom Hourglass. The top-down 3D worked surprisingly well, paired with a much better than expected control scheme.

Well, thanks for the questions; hopefully these explanations make things a bit clearer.


	14. Road Trippin'

**Road Trippin'**

**:::::::::::::::::**

"Ok, then do you remember the time we got captured by bandits, and Sheik busted us out by pretending to be a re-dead? He covered himself in so much mud, even I could barely recognize him!"

Rose laughed and reached past me to bop Zelda. Both of us looked at her blankly. Neither of us remembered that.

"Ok, fine. How about this?" She hummed a song, a few notes long.

"Oh! I remember that one!" I exclaimed. "That goes 'Waiting~for Zelda, Waiting~for Zelda, Whyyyyyyy are we waaaaaaiting~for Zelda todaaaaay...'"

Zelda blushed, and looked down.

"Hey, it's not my fault that sneaking out of the castle was hard," She said.

We were riding in Zelda's tiny pink roadster, all three of us squished into the bench seat. Sheik had put Kirio and Blind in charge of the town today, while we were trying to retrieve Zelda's tear. We'd held a vote on whose vehicle to take. My bike was out, since it couldn't fit three. No-one had voted for Rose's beater, and Rose and I had shared a glance and outvoted Zelda on the jeep.

"I just want to drive somewhere in a pink car." I'd assured her.

"I'll get you for this. Why did I agree to a vote?" She grumbled. "Someone's going to follow us. Did you know I have a fanclub? They're all crazy. And stalkers. If my cover as Sheik is blown, it'll be your fault."

"Haha, it'll be fine." Rose laughed, drowning out her grumbling. The little car was quite comfortable, and it was _fast._ We were making good time on the three hour drive. Lanayru province was a ways out. "If it really bothers you, cast a spell making us look like a truck or something."

"...can I do that?"

"You used to be able to. You always said illusions were easy. Of course, that's when you held part of the Triforce."

"Rose," I said, "Do you remember what holding a Triforce piece was like?"

"Yeah." She nodded, serious. "Although that was during the second timeline." She shuddered a little. "I had the Piece of Power, and it was _powerful_. I could cast spells that warped the very fabric of reality; things like portals and stuff. It was crazy. Watching you, Sein, I'm pretty sure that the Triforce of Courage juiced up your decision making skills, your instincts, and your luck. I watched once as you took out four Armos Knights. Four blows, four dead knights. You barely looked at them. It was incredible. From what you told me later, Zelda, after we became friends, yours was something like being a genius. All the time, in everything. You said you could solve calculus equations just by looking at them, if you used its power."

"Wow." Zelda said. "That would be nice to have."

"Yeah. But the weird thing is, I think the effects carried over a bit."

"How so?" I asked.

"I think that, just from our memories of the Triforce, it still left a little bit of power in us. Not a large amount, but enough to make a difference. I always hit harder, even after the time-warp. Just from remembering the Triforce, I think. You and Zelda might have just put it down to more life experience, but I think there was a little bit of the Golden Power left in us."

"Huh." Zelda said.

"Yeah, well, it's just my own personal theory. It started after you, Sein, brought up your crazy plan. We were asking why it would work, and you said something like 'We are the Triforce bearers! Even without its magic, if we put our courage, wisdom, and strength together, I'm sure we can stand against anything!' to convince us. I started wondering if there was something more to the strengths we'd been employing for years. It might just be nothing, of course."

"Still, it's interesting." Zelda said.

"Yeah." I added.

We rode in silence for a bit.

"Rose, are you feeling more stable? I know that after I slept for a while, my memories seemed to settle down a lot." Zelda said.

"Yeah, I am. I've got a much better grip on my skills." Rose took her hand off the steering wheel for a minute, and concentrated. A golden flame flickered in the palm of her hand. "I can do this again. And this." She shut her hand, and the flame molded itself into a dagger.

"Dang, Rose, you've got some sweet powers." I said, slightly envious.

"Yeah, they're sick." She nodded happily. "I don't even know if it would be fair to continue on the volleyball team at school. I mean, I used to be a power player, but now..."

I imagined her spiking the ball, and blowing it straight through the net.

"There are sports in the Deeper World." Zelda volunteered. "You could join a fight club."

A picture flashed through my head of Rose facing up to Kirio.

"That would be fun to watch." I said.

"Well, we'll see. School is, like, two months away yet." Rose replied. "I'll have plenty of time to get used to my new powers, once we're done throwing a wrench into Komue and Kotake's plans."

"Here's the turnoff." Zelda said. "Should we switch drivers again?"

Rose pulled off the highway we'd been barreling down, onto a gravel road.

"No, I'm ok. How far can we follow this?"

"It will turn into a dirt road soon and we'll have to walk. If we'd brought the jeep, we'd be able to roll right up to the spring." She said with an annoyed tone of voice.

"But hiking will be fun! And it's only a few miles, right?" I said.

"Yeah, I guess." She agreed grudgingly.

**::::::::::::::::::**

This spring was bigger than the last one. It was a huge shallow stone bowl, with rapids flowing from one side. Instead of being in a valley, it was actually about halfway up a low hill, the forest closing in tightly around it. I had to use dowsing again, to find the tear. It was lying in the gravel along one edge of the bowl, just sitting there under a few inches of water. We all stood looking at it for a minute.

"Well, shall we?" I said, motioning.

"What sort of monster do you suppose it will be?" Rose asked, nervously.

"No idea. The last one was a rock troll, and the stone was embedded in a rock. This time it's underwater." It looked pretty much like a blue pebble. The only thing that had convinced us we had the right stone was the shape, like a curved teardrop, with a hole through the thick end. "Maybe a water monster?" Zelda looked around warily.

"I'm going to take it." Rose said. "Get ready, guys." The two of us turned and faced outward as she stooped and picked up the pebble, scooping it into her pocket. I drew my sword, glancing around.

"Look!" Zelda said, pointing to the other side of the spring, where ripples were appearing in the water. As we watched, a tentacle-looking shape emerged, waved around for a second, and then disappeared.

"It's a water monster." I said glumly, right before something invisible wrapped around my ankle and dragged me halfway across the spring.

"Sein!" Rose yelled, throwing a golden fireball after me. It cut into the water with a rush of steam, causing the thing dragging me to let go. I leaped to my feet, wiping water out of my eyes, and dashed for the edge of the pond.

"Out of the water!" I yelled to the other two, who immediately moved for shore. Just then however, a dozen tentacles all sprouted from the surface of the spring. Zelda made it safely to the tree line, but one of the thrashing pseudo-pods wrapped around Rose and hoisted her into the air.

"Look for its core!" I yelled to Zelda as I scrambled onto a boulder, something in my memory reacting to the monster's shape.

"Right!" Zelda drew her silenced pistol and held it ready, watching as Rose fought, her figure crackling and sputtering, the golden fire she liked to use a flickering corona around her.

"There!" I pointed to one of the tentacles, which had something purple and bulbous floating in it. Zelda leveled her pistol, and sent three rounds splashing into the monster. She cursed when they had no effect, losing momentum quickly, the low-velocity rounds stopped by the thick wall of viscous water. Suddenly I saw the bank Zelda was standing on darken.

"It's under you! Move!" I yelled just as the tentacle exploded out of the dirt. She leaped backwards, dropping the useless gun, but she wasn't fast enough to escape the monster's grasp. Just then, the tentacle holding Rose threw her. She sailed a few meters and hit hard, a half-foot of water barely cushioning the rock underneath. She groaned, but clambered to her feet again, fashioning a weapon from her magical power and heading aggressively for the monster's core. Meanwhile, I'd jumped from my boulder to the bank and was dashing towards Zelda. I concentrated in the way she'd shown me and I felt a thrill as my magical power started to flow into the black blade.

When I was close enough I slashed and yelled. The magic flew from the blade and sliced through the tentacles. Every tendril separated from the main body turned back to water, and splashed back into the pond with a crash. Zelda fell too, but I dashed forward and caught her, leaping past the monster before it recovered and joining Rose where she waited near the rapids, the core having escaped downstream. I set Zelda on her feet and we made a defensive triangle, backs inwards. Zelda produced her daggers. We stood in silence for a few seconds before I noticed what was going on further down the river.

"Uh-oh." I said.

"That's not a good noise." Rose said, her back to me.

"Down!" My tone of voice brooked no argument, and we all threw ourselves flat, just as a boulder flew through the space we'd been standing in. We scattered. I glanced back towards the rapids again, where the ameboid monster was hefting boulders out of the rushing flow and aiming them at us. I scooped up Zelda's gun from the bank and dashed into the trees, dodging downstream. Rose and Zelda were on the other bank. I waved for Rose's attention as we ran, and motioned that she should draw the thing's attack. She nodded.

She went with fireballs. Fireballs have a way of getting you noticed.

She concentrated, spinning the golden energy into a solid core, a glowing orb that hummed with power. The monster threw a boulder at her, and she retaliated while dodging. There was a hiss as the energy sphere sliced into the water, and then a muffled _crump_ as it exploded. About a third of the river bumped up, bursting into a huge bubble. I watched as the monster's core moved away from their side of the river, working its way upstream against the current. I raised the gun, and concentrated.

Magic began to curl around the barrel.

"Hope this works." I mumbled, before lining up my shot, and laying three rounds into the pulsating purple sphere.

It worked better than I'd hoped. Three cracks rang out as the rounds slapped into the water with stunning force. There was a bubbly shriek, and the monster's core started bleeding the same blackish-blue blood as the rock troll. It thrashed around violently, bouncing off rocks and even leaping out of the water once. I took the opportunity to snap another round into it. It jumped, arching out of the water again and landing on the shore, where it screamed again and disintegrated the same way the rock troll had.

I shakily ejected the clip from the gun and worked the slide. Once I was sure the chamber was empty, I carefully put it in my pocket and headed back towards the spirit spring.

Zelda and Rose met me there. We stood watching for a minute as the light spirit materialized. This one was in the shape of a serpent, again only a few feet long.

_Greetings, heroes._

"Excuse me, Lanayru..." Rose said hesitantly, "But shouldn't you be bigger?"

_Well, I'm a little short on power right now._ The serpent laughed dryly. _Tsstsstss._

"Oh, the fade. I guess it would have affected you, too."

_Indeed. However, I do have enough energy to heal you, if you will bathe your wounds in this spring._

We nodded, grateful. The bruise on my ankle was already healing. Rose stooped, and splashed herself all over. Zelda sat down, as I did, and soaked for a few minutes.

"It's a good thing we brought dry clothes, huh?"

"Yeah." Zelda replied. "Now we just need somewhere to change."

"The woods?" Rose responded.

"I guess." Zelda replied, sounding a little unhappy.

"Haaa. Better!" I stood, and we faced the light spirit again. Rose held out the tear, wrapped in a handkerchief. Lanayru touched it and it glowed briefly, before regaining its gem-like luster. We thanked the light spirit again and headed back to the car. 

**::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::**

"Ok, who's first?" I asked, once we were all wearing dry clothes. Zelda's desire to be dry had overcome her squeamishness, and we'd all taken turns heading into the forest to change.

"Me." Rose said, sitting down and putting her back up against a tree. She pulled the tear out of her pocket and unwrapped it, tipping it from the handkerchief into her bare hand. There was a tiny flash of gold and she slumped, apparently asleep. Zelda and I watched for a minute, uncomfortably. It didn't seem to take long before she opened her eyes again, re-wrapped the stone and handed it to me.

"You're next." I nodded my acceptance and sat down, making myself comfortable. I looked up. Both girls were staring at me. I shifted a little, self-conscious, before unwrapping the stone myself.

I fell out of my body for the third time. 

This time instead of hitting the ground, something caught me and held me upright, setting me down gently. I looked around. I was standing on an infinite plane covered in water, as reflective as a mirror. Above me was a brilliant blue sky but no sun. A few white clouds floated gently through the air. 

In front of me stood Zelda.

But this wasn't the casually dressed eighteen year old that I knew. This was Zelda from ages past, dressed beautifully and a mature woman, holding herself with the elegance of a queen. 

She was inspecting me with eyes as blue as the sky. 

I looked away, suddenly feeling shy. 

"Excuse me, ma'am..." my voice trailed off, uncertain. 

"Oh, Link." Her voice was full of laughter. She stepped forward and gently grasped my chin with one gloved hand, pulling my head around so she could look in my eyes again. "It's good to see you." She leaned forward, and kissed me on the cheek. "Even if you don't remember me yet."

And just like that, I was back in my body. Confused and disoriented, I stumbled to my feet and handed Zelda the stone, without thinking to re-wrap it. She slid her sleeve down over her hand and took it from my grasp before settling herself on the grass. As soon as she touched it there was a blinding flash of gold, and she fell into the trance as well. 

"Were we..." my voice was low. I turned to Rose, not sure what I was trying to ask. "Close? Not as friends..." 

"Lovers? No. In love...? Maybe. Back in the day, you and Zelda were separated by an insurmountable wall, the distance between your stations. No-one but the three of us and the sages really knew the truth of what had happened with the time-split. Zelda spent a lot of time with us and the sages, as the few real friends she had outside of her court life. I was never sure how she thought of us, but I think the Sheik disguise probably tends to give the princess 'I see you as a brother' syndrome. We definitely loved each other, but in my case it was never more than platonic. As for you two...I honestly have no idea. I'm not the best judge of character, I'll be the first to admit. Or rather, I wasn't. Maybe I've gotten better?"

We stood there, musing for a minute. 

Zelda's eyes flickered and she stood up, shakily. 

"It feels like my head exploded." She said. Rose nodded, understandingly. "And then imploded. And then exploded again."

"Yup, that's what it was like for me. Except there was a giant skeleton, too!" 

"Does it hurt?" I asked, concerned. 

"Not really, actually. It's just _weird_." she replied. "However, it does feel really good, too. I'm really starting to feel like myself, again. Pfft."

Suddenly she laughed, breaking out in a fit of the giggles, and turning to Rose.

"I remember! The time I disguised myself as a re-dead! That was the time you and Link were tied up, and thrown in an old barn, and when I shambled into the camp, the bandits ran inside and spooked the cow, and-" She dissolved into gales of laughter, and Rose joined her. 

"Man," she said, wiping tears from her eyes. "Good times. Wow. We did a lot of stuff." 

"I know, right?" Rose reached out and hugged her. "It's good to see you again."

"It's good to be back. Now we just need to do something about him." She waved dismissively in my direction.

"His turn comes tomorrow." Rose replied. "We need to wait for the emissary from the Koroks, right?" 

"Yeah." Zelda nodded, slightly dissatisfied. "Well, there's no helping it, I guess. Oh, hey, check it out, I remembered some of my magic!" She pointed at the car, and her finger glowed ice blue. She waved it gently and a spark floated off, landing on the hood of the coup. A glow spread across it and when it was done, the whole thing was...blue camouflage.

Rose and I looked at each other, and then dissolved into giggles.

"Man, Zelda, you could have any paint job in the universe, and you chose blue camo?" I laughed, cracking up. 

"Hey! It was a spur of the moment decision!" She said annoyed, glaring at us. "Stop laughing! Do you want me to shoot lightening at you?" 

"You can do that?" I said, calming down. Rose giggled a little longer. 

"Yeah. Probably. Once I remember how the spell works. This is going to take a little getting used to."

"It goes like this." Rose said, waving one hand. A crackling blue bolt jumped across the road, sending splinters flying from one of the trees. 

"Damn. You girls might be a bit overpowered." I said, looking at the burn marks on the tree. 

"Believe you me, Sein, we're going to need every ounce of mojo we can scrape together to face Twinrova." Rose answered. "Zelda, do you remember your teleport spells?"

"...I don't think I can work them just yet. Anyways, I don't think I'd be able to move the car without full support from you and Sein."

"Ok. Well, we'd better get going. We've got a long drive ahead." 

We all piled into the blue camouflage roadster, and started the trip back, laughing and cracking jokes the whole way.

**::::::::::::::::::::::::::::**

Sorry about this one being late. My laptop is having problems; the bearing in the fan went out, so I disassembled it, and ordered a new one. I was planning to have it back together by now. HOWEVER, the part got shipped to my home address, instead of my school address, so I've had to get a bit creative in the computing department for now.

Well, it's up. Hopefully I'll do better next week. Again, questions, comments, snide remarks, all welcome! Drop me a review.

~Pyro.


	15. Sparring, and a Surprise

**Sparring, and a Surprise**

**:::::::::::::::**

"I think we might be in trouble." Rose said, calmly.

She and Zelda were sitting back to back, white skin and gold hair contrasting sharply with dark skin and red locks. They were meditating, doing something sorcerer-ish. We were in the gym. I was swinging my sword, as usual, working through a set of forms that I was doing my best to remember. My new memories said they'd be useful for heavily armored opponents.

"Why," I gasped, lowering my blade. "is that?"

"Twinrova is after the Triforce. They've got to be. That was the only reason they pushed me into that curse, last time. They wanted to be the power behind my throne. Of course, it didn't work out that way, but I'm sure that's what they're after. The problem is, I have no idea how they'd manage it. We locked that thing down tight."

"We really did." Zelda chimed in. "Besides locking the doors to the Light Realm so tightly, we set up a series of shields. We even left a guardian."

"Yeah." Rose nodded. "Although they might be able to sneak past him."

"Who?" I asked, curious.

"Your shadow." Zelda said. "A reflected version of you. Rose made it to fight you, when you were enemies. As friends, we summoned it so we could use that." She pointed to the black sword I held. "The mirror image of the Master Sword. It was your idea, actually. You thought that maybe we could break the portal to the Light Realm with it. It wasn't that simple, but I eventually worked out the spell we needed. Thankfully we were able to change the spell enough that it lost it's original homicidal nature when we summoned it."

Rose nodded agreement. "I wonder how it's held up, over there," she said. "Well, no matter. Back to what I was saying. I'm pretty sure Twinrova is after the Triforce. If they get it, we might be in trouble."

"Nah, we'll still work it out." I said. "Remember, last time, you got it first, and things still turned out ok."

"But at what cost?"

We were all silent for a minute, remembering the wreck that had been made of Castle Town.

"Well, listen to this." I said. "Maybe Twinrova does have a way to get to the Triforce. If they do, we just need to figure it out. Once we know what they're doing, we can either beat them to it, or follow them through and take it from them. I'm guessing that if they do grab the thing, we'll probably get at least one piece of it, and that means that even if they do make it into the Light Realm, they still need to make it back _out._"

"How so?" Zelda asked.

"Haha, of course!" Rose said. "There's _two_ of them. Even though they act like one person most of the time, there's no way that either of them is going to agree to give the other the Triforce. It will split up, for sure. We'll probably end up with his piece." She gestured to me. "So we can be fairly certain that they don't have it yet."

"That's probably right, at that." Zelda nodded, agreeing. "Yeah, I think you've hit it. Ok, then, we'll just stick to the plan as it is. Are you ready for this fight?" She turned her head, to look at Rose.

"Yeah. Let's get this on." Rose replied.

I stood to the side, watching the two of them. They'd decided to spar, and each of them had been gathering their magical resources in preparation. They stood relaxed, Rose wearing a loose white martial arts uniform, the waist tied with a black belt. She certainly deserved that, at least. Zelda was wearing her sheikah clothes, although she wasn't using her Sheik mask. The indigo outfit made her ice blue eyes look even more piercing. Both of them had braided their hair into long queues.

"Ready?" I asked, They both took a stance. The air between them seemed to writhe. I wondered if it was their stares of concentration, or if they were preparing spells already. "Then, GO!"

Rose moved in a flash, stepping forward and punching swiftly, golden flame pulsing through the air from her strike. Zelda was gone before it reached her, not merely jumping but actually teleporting upwards. Her hand flickered, releasing a spray of daggers. Rose didn't dodge, instead summoning a golden shield as she readied to meet the descending warrior. The daggers must have been magically charged, however; they sliced right through her defense. Forced to avoid at the last minute, she dropped low and leaped backwards. Zelda landed lightly and pressed her advantage.

I watched in awe as they moved into close combat, exchanging a flurry of blows, both mundane and loaded with magical power. Each one was deflected or blocked in turn, or countered magically with grace and finesse.

It soon became obvious that Zelda was burning through her magic faster than Rose. She started conserving her power, dodging instead of blocking when she could get away with it. Rose was faltering as well. Despite her volleyball training, she was no longer the desert warrior she remembered being, and she began to tire physically.

It ended in an instant. Rose fumbled, drawing a strike from Zelda. It was a pretense, though; apparently she had held some stamina in check, and when Zelda struck she countered instantly, shoving a devastating blow through Zelda's defense and releasing a magical strike that caught the Princess full on and threw her across the room.

Rose gradually relaxed her stance, panting hard, as Zelda forced herself to her feet and staggered over to a bench. I walked over to where we'd set two vials of red potion, tossing one to each of them. They each gulped it down gratefully. I watched as the bruises that were starting to form on Zelda's face faded visibly.

"That," Rose said shakily, "was _intense._"

"I know." Zelda replied. "I've never fought that well, not even as Sheik. And I've spent some time fighting. You were right, Rose. A fair amount of what we've regained wasn't just head memory. There's muscle memory there, too. I wonder what other skills I've got, that I simply haven't bothered to look for yet?"

"I dunno. We're just going to have to wait and see, I guess. Man, that was a rush. Was it cool, Sein? Did we look like a kung-fu movie?"

I nodded. Zelda and I had grown up with our martial arts. Rose, however, had gone from amateur to master in the matter of seconds. I remembered her using Gannon's favorite move on that skeleton. What sort of a shock would that sort of thing give you? No wonder she'd been so disoriented.

"You guys looked like something from a cartoon. Or a superhero movie." I pointed to the char marks on the floor and walls, where stray magic had bounced around. "Special effects doesn't half do it justice."

Zelda looked guilty for a second.

"I'd better break this to Impa gently. Hopefully I can pass it off as training when I show her my new moves."

"Just how much does Impa know?" I asked, curious. "Not that I distrust her."

"Actually, I told her everything. I don't know how much of it she believes; this is pretty far out, even for the Deeper World. She's been my nurse for as long as I can remember, though, and she knows everything about me. She's the one who taught me how to use Sheik's mask. I couldn't have kept you guys a secret for long, even if I tried."

I nodded, accepting the wisdom of her decision.

"That was probably best. It's great you can tell her stuff like this. My family still thinks I'm camping." I said.

"And mine thinks I'm spending waaay too much time at the library, researching for my summer homework." Rose added. I sighed, dismayed. I'd forgotten our summer homework.

"Little do they know, we're actually transforming into ancient warriors of untold power, driven by destiny to risk our lives saving the world!" I exclaimed, dramatically.

"When you say it like that..." Zelda said slowly, "It sounds awfully cheesy."

"True, though." Rose said. "No matter how cheesy it sounds, that's pretty much what's happening."

"Yeah, but you don't need to be so melodramatic about it."

"Pfft." I laughed, watching the two of them argue. They both turned to look at me, and then started to laugh themselves.

"Well, Zelda," I asked as we calmed down. "Now that we've got our training in, what's on the schedule for today?"

"Showers. We stink. Then, we've got meetings with the tribal leaders. In response to my messages, the Korok, Goro, and Zoran leaders arrived yesterday. We'll meet them one by one, and try and convince them of what's going on. Once that's done, we can re-evaluate our plan to get a hold of your tear."

"Sounds good." I stood and stretched. "I'm going to hit the showers. Where are we meeting up?"

"By the elevator. Don't take too long." I nodded, and headed for the gym's shower room.

**:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::**

An hour later we were sitting around a circular table with Kirio and Blind. Zelda was wearing her Sheik mask. Impa was ushering the Goran leader out, a small man with a ruddy complexion. We'd successfully negotiated treaties with two of the tribes. Blind and Kirio had been curious about Rose's involvement at first, but Zelda had asked her to comment on the Stalfos Knights, and they'd seemed to accept her presence.

Impa came back in, and bowed.

"The Korok leader would like to meet the three of you, but without the Gerudo and Sheikah tribal representatives." She said.

Sheik glanced at Kirio and Blind. They nodded, resigned; I guess the Korok's leader had a reputation as an oddball.

"I'm certain you can convince them without our help." Kirio said. Blind nodded agreement, and they filed out, Impa following them. Soon after the door re-opened, and a young girl stepped in.

I could hardly believe that this was the leader of a tribe. She didn't look older than fourteen. She was wearing the green tunic and brown leggings I'd started to associate with the Knights, and simple sandals. She had deep green eyes, and chestnut colored hair that was held back from her face with a green hairband.

"Saria!?" Sheik said, half a shriek, half a whisper. Rose however, had launched herself across the room, and was hugging the girl fiercely.

"Ganon?" The girl said, uncertainly.

"Oh, of course!" Rose released her, holding her at arm length. "Naturally, you wouldn't recognize me. Yeah, it's me. How're you doing, sweet pea?"

Saria threw her arms around Rose in response.

"Oh, you're back!" She sobbed, bursting into tears. "All of you! It's so good to see you! I've been so worried!"

As things calmed down, a few things were explained to me, the only one who still didn't remember her. Saria, as it turned out, was a Kokiri and also the Sage of Forest. That combination meant that she would, apparently, live forever. She'd aged about four years in response to the fade, but other than that, she'd been the sole member of the Korok tribe for five hundred years, ever since we locked up the triforce.

"I could see things starting to come undone." She explained. "I knew it all; how you'd cast the spell. Everything worked fine, until about a year and half ago, when things started to go sour. Ever since then, I've been worried sick. But when I got this summons, I started to wonder. And now I know your back, I'm so relieved!" And she cried a little more, but not very hard. "Oh. I brought this, too." And just like that, she pulled a bead shaped like a curved teardrop out of her pocket and laid it on the table. It was a brilliant green, like the leaves of summer, and it shone as clear as a jewel.

"Mine!" I gasped. She'd brought my tear!

"Thanks, Saria." Zelda said, quietly. "That means a lot to us."

"You're welcome." The kokiri girl responded, shyly. "I knew you might not remember me, but with this, at least I could give you something."

"Well," Rose said, "No time like the present." She lined up a few chairs to form an impromptu couch and lay down, reaching up to the table to touch the bead. There was a spark, and her arm went limp. It took a few minutes before she sat up groggily.

"Your next, Zelda."

The princess had taken her mask off as soon as she recognized Saria. She nodded, and lay down herself.

"What was it like?" I asked Rose. "Getting most of your memories back?"

"I don't remember too well." She replied. "But something like what Zelda said. Fireworks, in your head."

Zelda stood up shakily, and motioned me to the seats. I sat down apprehensively, and looked at the three of them. Rose was grinning. Saria looked at me with something like nervousness, and Zelda was...blushing? I lay back quickly, and reached for the tear. I heard a crackle, saw a golden flash, and then I was falling.

This time, however, I didn't land anywhere. I was falling through darkness, but up ahead there was a point of light, rapidly growing larger.

My past life flashed before my eyes.

I recognized bits of it, things I'd seen before in flashes. The rainy night that I'd beaten Gannon imprinted me with a feeling of sorrow. I stood in the temple of time again, ready to push the Shadow Blade into the pedestal, and finish the spell we'd spent years crafting. But there were plenty of new scenes, too. I remembered the joy of meeting my fairy. I parted with Saria as I left the lost woods, carrying her feelings with me. I saw Twinrova, for a flash, in the Spirit Temple. I'd beaten them, but been unable to destroy them; they floated away, escaping as spirits.

I watched, as giants caught a falling moon.

I met Ganon again, and gave him a scorched yellow stone, which changed him forever. The last of my memories were full of my two friends. Ganon and Zelda stood with me, again and again as I looked. We laughed together. We ate together. We told stories late into the night. We fought, and fought, and fought, once in a while each other, but always each other's enemies. Sometimes we lost. Mostly we won. We had our disagreements, but we always put them aside again, willing to forgive for the sake of what we'd done for each other.

I barely realized it when it was over, and I was back in my body. Shakily, I stood up. As soon as I caught sight of Saria's face, a rush of memories almost overwhelmed me.

"Saria!" I threw my arms around her. "Old friend, it's been too long!"

"Link." She cried quietly on my shoulder for a minute, but recovered quickly. "It's so good to see you again."

"What happened to the other Kokiri? Mido? The know-it-all brothers?" I asked.

"They all went their own ways, slowly, when it was their time, heading back into the forest. I couldn't, though. The Sage has work to do, every day."

She had waited five hundred years for her friends to come back.

"Listen." Saria addressed us as the Sage of Forest, after we had all calmed down. "I'm afraid we might have played right into Twinrova's hands."

"How so?" Zelda asked, leaning forward.

"You've told me your speculations, and I think you're right. Twinrova is obviously planning to use some sort of artifact, probably with the intent of going for the Triforce. By releasing your memories and powers, the three of you have increased the amount of magic flowing into the world drastically. We need to be ready for Twinrova to make their move, and make it soon. Link-sorry, Sein. Do you have any idea what sort of artifact she might be planning to use? You were always the most knowledgeable about them."

I thought as hard as I could, but my memories were dreamlike and scattered. I couldn't come up with anything.

"Sorry guys, no idea. Give me a few hours of sleep, though, and I might be able to help you."

"You all need rest." Saria said, looking us over carefully. "According to what you said, you've been going non-stop for three or four days, right? Magical healing can only do so much. You need some real relaxation."

"Sounds good." Zelda said, laying her hands on the table. "Ok, how about this. Since the afternoon is suddenly free, let's all go out to eat! We can have a party, and catch up on old times. You're invited of course, Saria. What do you guys think?"

After days of fighting, a dinner party sounded pretty good to me. We all nodded, and the plan was set.

**::::::::::::::::::::::::::: **


	16. Dinner Party, War Party

**Dinner Party, War Party**

**:::::::::::::::::::::::**

Zelda had Impa set up reservations for us at a Deeper World restaurant. She asked for some place high-class, where we could get a secluded conference room for our dinner party.

She also made us all dress up, and even loaned everyone clothes. She was going as Sheik, so we wore suits. Mine was black with a green tie, and he wore navy blue with a lighter blue tie. Rose wore a simple white dress, while Saria went in green, of course.

Sheik led us to a covered area where a limousine was waiting. He seemed like the only one of us really at ease, but the ride was quick and soon we were walking into a small nondescript building that disguised a beautiful restaurant. Sheik led us confidently in, and as soon as the staff caught site of him we were wafted into an interior dining room. There we found a small table set with four places in shining silver and sparkling crystal, with all sorts of dishes, pots, pans, baskets and bowls of food scattered across it.

As soon as the door was closed he took of his mask, transforming back into Zelda. For some reason, this time her clothes didn't change.

"Phew!" She loosened her tie and pulled out a seat. "Ok, guys, dig in!"

"We don't order or anything?" Rose looked a little confused.

"Nope! When you eat here, you get what they're serving, which is always delicious, and always plentiful. Just eat what you like. This place is known for their privacy; the next room over, they could be having a screaming contest, and we'd never know. So let your hair down, and lets have fun!"

And the party was under way.

First, we stuffed ourself. Zelda had been right; the food here was absolutely amazing. I started with a slice of cheesecake, and worked my way through a serving of pork roast, a bowl of stew, a green salad, and two or three pieces of chicken. Saria made some comment about it being in the wrong order, but I ignored her.

Rose was pleased to discover that Impa had ordered us wine to go with our food. She suggested a drinking contest, but we vetoed her. She was glad enough to give it up when I pointed out that she wouldn't have the same tolerance in the body of an eighteen-year old woman.

We all had questions for Saria, of course, asking about all sorts of things that had happened in the past five hundred years. It was weird, talking about things that were hundreds of years after us and before us at the same time.

Once we'd eaten our fill, Zelda put her mask back on long enough for the table to be cleared. We asked for a deck of cards, and started a late-night game of poker. Before Zelda took her mask off, I joked we should play girls versus guys. They had a laugh at that, when we couldn't decide whether Zelda, as Sheik, would play with the guys, or Rose, who'd been a man in her past life, would play with the girls.

We played well into the night, especially since they'd left the coffee and tea when they'd taken the rest of the food. Saria had a surprisingly good poker face, and she won a lot. We used embarrassing stories as prizes for the winner and I ended up telling them about the time Hannah had tricked me into drinking a glass of vinegar.

By the time we finally piled back into the limo, it was early in the morning, and we were all pretty close to falling asleep. I stumbled into bed that night exceedingly satisfied. We had started out as old friends; now it became obvious that we could be new friends, too, sharing just as fully in our present lives as we had in our past lives.

**::::::::::::::::::::::**

It was probably ten in the morning when I realized what Twinrova was up to. I shot upright in bed, the thought clear in mind. I fumbled clean clothes on and reached for my phone.

All I said, when I got Zelda, was: "I know what they're after."

We met as quickly as possible, gathering in Sheik's rooms near the Knights quarters. Zelda, as Sheik, brought Saria while I brought Rose, who had been assigned to the same squad as me. As soon as we were all there I told them what I'd thought up.

"They're going for the Mirror."

Zelda gasped; Saria nodded slowly. Rose looked confused.

"What mirror?" She said.

"Impa, the Sage of Shadow back in the day, was building it." I said. "It was supposed to allow us to reach into other dimensions. She was trying to find a 'Twilight Realm', or something like that. But, and here's the interesting bit, Raru was documenting it."

"The Book of Mudora." Rose said, realizing where this was headed. "Which Twinrova took."

"Exactly. As two master-class witches, once there's enough magic, they ought to be able to use the Book to re-purpose the mirror. And I'm guessing there's enough magic by now. They may already be in the Light Realm."

The atmosphere around the table turned grim.

"Where did Impa put this thing?" Rose asked.

"The old Temple of Time. It's in the middle of the Gerudo desert." Saria said, quietly. "Of course. If they can make the mirror work, they can bypass the lock on the Light Realm completely. Shadow might not even know they're there."

"All right." Zelda said, taking charge. "We're heading to the desert. Best case, we find them and take them out. If they're through already, we follow them. Twenty minutes, we meet back here. Get ready for a trip. I'll get a hold of the supplies; you guys get your personal belongings. This might take a few days." We nodded decisively and split up.

When we got back, three lightweight, waterproof packs sat on the table. I was wearing my sword, and all I added to my pack was some clean clothes. I'd left my phone on my bed; there was no reception where we were going. Once we were all there, Zelda took over again.

"Gather round, everyone. Saria's told me where the Mirror is." We formed a small circle around Zelda. She concentrated, and a golden glow flashed around us, encompassing the group. This time, as she spoke the spell words for teleportation I recognized parts of it as Ancient Hylian. It was meaningless, but spells tended to be nonsense even when they used real words.

Suddenly there was a jerk, the whole world did a cartwheel, and we were in the desert. The sun shone brightly. There were dunes for miles. I couldn't see anything that looked like a mirror.

Zelda turned to Rose. "It should be in a building around here."

Our backup magician, who knew the desert like the back of her hand, scratched her head and concentrated.

"It's underneath us." She said, motioning downwards. She spoke a spell of her own and a golden pillar pierced the dune we were standing on, boring a tunned through the sand. We walked carefully down it. I drew my sword and pushed a little magic into it, letting the glow light my way. After a minute walking we reached a stone wall. Rose simply punched it down and led the way in.

Inside, it was lit with a a reddish purple glow, the lurid light thrown off by the portal in the middle of the room. This wasn't anything like the blue beam Twinrova had used last time; this was a raw wound in space. A black disk stood in the corner of the ancient room, throwing off dark rays that held the wormhole open. In front of it, nothing but charred ash between the covers, sat the remnants of the Book of Mudora.

"Dang." Zelda said, examining it. "I'd hoped to read that."

"They should have a replica at the library." I said absently.

"But that was more than a book; Raru poured hundreds of spells into making-"

"Hush, Zelda, I'm thinking." I said. She snapped her mouth shut and we all stood in silence for a minute.

"Ok. They've got the lead on us." I said. "Any idea how many days?"

Zelda flexed her fingers, a golden ripple radiating outward for a split second.

"The magical residue is starting to decay. I'd say at least two days, but not more than three."

"We're going to need some way to catch them. Saria, how about the Lost Woods? Do you know if it extends into the Light Realm?"

Our resident Sage bowed her head in thought for a minute.

"Maybe. If it does, it's going to be weird and dangerous, Link. Do you remember how to navigate it?"

"Follow the music." I nodded. "And weird and dangerous is ok; we're going to have to deal. We're short on time. Girls, is this portal safe?"

"Seems so." Rose replied, from where she was studying it. "It doesn't look like it's about to destabilize anytime soon, if I remember anything about portals. And I do."

"Ok. Are we ready?" Zelda said. "Once we commit to this, I don't think we'll be able to easily get back through until we've stabilized the magical flow from one world to the other, and in order to do that, we're going to have to at least visit the Triforce."

The three of us exchanged glances, and then nodded.

"Saria, are you here or there?" Zelda asked.

"...here." Saria said, slowly. "I'd like to go with you, but someone is going to need to rally the sages if you fail. Besides, if you three can't deal with this, I don't think I'll be much help. I'm not the most warlike sage, after all. That would be-"

"Darunia." we all chorused together.

"Right." The three of us nodded to each other and formed a ring, throwing our hands together in the middle.

"One for all, and all for one." I said.

"Or something like that." Zelda answered.

"Gooooo, TEAM!" Rose shouted, ending with a giggle. Laughing, we all turned and marched through the portal in single file.

The trip was weird.

There was none of the disorientation I'd associated with teleportation or warping up until now. We walked steadily for a few steps. I could see Rose and Zelda behind me, and the path I was on was smooth. The room we left was gone as soon as we stepped through the slit, replaced by a scenery of twisting and morphing purple and blue blobs that sped past as I walked. I felt like each of my steps covered miles. The blobs didn't move when I stood still, but they rushed past impossibly fast when I stepped. After a few steps the blobs started to change color. When they were greenish yellow, I reached the end of the tunnel and fell out.

The other end of the portal was inside a thin but tall tower, a good six inches off the floor. I stumbled as my foot left the invisible path inside the portal and came down on thin air. I waved my arms frantically for a second before losing my balance and landing in an awkward heap.

Zelda apparently realized what was going on, since I saw her stick her head out to look around before she carefully stepped over me. Rose followed suit.

We had come out inside an open-air room. It wasn't very big, no more than ten or fifteen feet across, and it was round. The ceiling was supported by stone columns, but other than that there were no walls. The breeze was cool, but humid. I walked to the edge and looked down into a sea of green.

"This isn't desert. It looks a lot like...jungle." I said.

"Yeah." Zelda nodded. "Things tend to be somewhat opposite in the Light World." As I watched, she produced a hand mirror from her pack and slid her fingers across it, leaving trails of blue light. "Gather round, guys. I'm going to try scrying where we stashed the Triforce." She breathed on the mirror, and held it out. As the fog cleared, we saw an ancient stone temple. There was a large domed building in the middle surrounded by a thick and heavy wall, with an imposing iron gate set in it. As we watched, I noticed random flashes of light escaping from between the arches and columns of the central building.

"They're there, alright." Rose said.

"And they're already starting to dismantle our spells." Zelda said.

"Right." I said. "Let's get moving. It's a good thing we came down near trees; this ought the help us find the Lost Woods."

As I'd thought, when we reached the bottom of the tower it was well and truly jungle. Thick, dank, green undergrowth blocked our way. Twinrova had apparently left by air, since there was no discernible path. I searched back through my memory. We'd traveled through the Lost Woods once or twice before, in the 'real' world. There had been Lost Doors, magical portals that led to the Woods, scattered all over Hyrule. How had I been able to find them? I didn't have any formal magic, not like the two girls; they'd each invested years and years of training to get where they were. But I did have fairy magic. The fairies had gifted me three stones, three glassy diamonds, one red, one blue, one green. Where had I put them...?

I remembered suddenly. When we decided to split up our memories, we had needed something that would hold a huge amount of magic power. "Rose, Zelda, do you still have your tears?" They each nodded, and pulled the teardrop-shaped stones out of pockets and handed them to me. I added my own tear to it, and stared at them for a minute. Sure enough, even though all the color was gone from the inside, they were still tinged slightly. I pulled a piece of paracord out of my bag, and threaded it through the hole in each one, before tying it into a simple bracelet around my wrist. Now I could reach them as I needed. I swung my hand, spinning the bracelet until the green tear lay in my palm. I grasped it, and concentrated.

Each of these spells had started out as a single-use thing, formulaic; the blue one, called Nayru's Love, created a shield, the red one, called Din's Fire, created a ring of fire, and and the green one, called Farore's Wind, created a one-way teleport door. As I used them continuously, though, I'd realized that I could 'bend' the spells, twisting them a little, so they worked more and more to my advantage. It started with darkening the shield spell, in order to make it less noticeable. Then, I'd changed the ring of fire into a fireball. Soon, I could manipulate them as I pleased. It wasn't quite the instinctive power manipulation that Rose used, or the infinite variety of spells Zelda commanded, but my swordwork had always been more than enough to make up for those.

The spell I wanted to try bending was Farore's wind. Casting it inside a dungeon created two portal orbs; one of them would seek out the dungeon entrance, and if you left the dungeon, you could warp back to where you had placed the other orb. I knew it couldn't warp us around outside, but maybe, just maybe, I could use it to search for a door. I pictured a door to the Lost Woods in my mind, focusing on the thin, rippling membrane of magic that covered the inside. A green orb started to form over my head. Very carefully, I let it move a few feet. It darted to the side.

"Ok, we're going to follow this. If I've done things right, it ought to lead us to a Lost Door. Hopefully it won't be too far away."

And with that, we set off.

Rose led. She threw magic around carelessly, lifting logs out of the way with golden glowing hands, or slicing through a thicket with a hundred golden machetes which swung wildly one second, were gone gone the next. We made fairly good progress, once or twice detouring around something that the orb simply floated over, such as a giant outcropping of rock.

It was hard going, but at least we were heading downhill.

After a few hours of fighting our way through the thick undergrowth, I felt the urgency of the orb start to wane. We crossed a river, walking on a bridge made of golden force.

"Rose, is this really alright?" I asked. "You're throwing a lot of power around."

"We brought some magical supplements." She replied. "I think that getting to Twinrova fast is worth using one or two of them."

I nodded. Zelda sure had prepared well. This took more out of Rose than just magical power, though; if we had time, it would be best to see if we could snatch a bit of a rest before facing off against the witches.

Soon, we found the door. It was small. The Lost Doors had been intended for children to use, I think. It was about the size of a kitchen cupboard, a stone box backed with a magical membrane that absorbed light.

"Well, we found it." I said, taking off my pack, and sitting down for a minute of rest. "Now, we just need to deal with what Saria called 'weird and dangerous'. And if something is weird and dangerous in comparison to the Lost Woods, I'm guessing it's downright 'insane and horrific' in normal terms."

"I don't remember them as being so bad." Zelda said.

"That's because I knew what I was doing. You were never lost. You never met a Skull Kid." I said.

"Well," Rose said after a few minutes, "The only way to deal with it is to deal with it. Are we going to do this?"

"Yeah." Zelda nodded reluctantly. "I'd like to teleport us all there, but the magical field in this world isn't nearly constant enough for me to get a good fix on the temple. Raru could have done it, but we might make it, or we might end up in a wall. That would be bad."

"Bad." I agreed and stood, shouldering my pack. "Well, as Rose said, we've gotta do what we've gotta do." I got down on my hands and knees and crawled into the unknown.

**::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::**


	17. The Lost Caverns

**The Lost Caverns**

**::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::**

As I crawled through the Lost Door, I felt a familiar ripple as the magic warped me through space.

I came out into pitch blackness. There was stone under my feet, and it seemed like I was in some kind of room. I fumbled for my bracelet, feeling for the red crystal. A moment of concentration, and a tiny fireball spun into existence, hovering just in front of my left shoulder; so I could see, but wouldn't blind the girls as they came through behind me.

It was not a room, but a cave.

It had the blobby irregularity of a limestone cavern, carved years ago by water. The floor was dry and dusty and it was a little cold, but the air temperature was pretty constant. A shiver crawled up my spine; this was probably going to be worse than I'd imagined. The girls crawled through after me, observing the scene in silence.

"I think," I said grimly, "That I'm going to call this the Lost Caverns." They nodded slowly. "This is going to be tricky." I added. "Can one of you map as we go? I don't know how useful it will be, but there's a chance-" I cut off as an earthshaking tremor made us all stumble. As I watched, one of the cave entrances ground shut, sealing over like it had never existed, while on the other side of the room the rock dented in and flowed outward like a liquid, opening a new one.

"Never mind." I said. "We're just going to have to risk it. Be as quiet as possible while I'm choosing directions. The Lost Woods had a catch-all, a place where it dumped any intruders who made a wrong turn. For Kokiri, it was the village, but I've been told that for others it was somewhere much, much more unpleasant. The rumor was that people who got lost in the Woods turned into Skull Kids." The other two nodded, looking a little nervous.

We all stood absolutely still. I listened as hard as I could.

It wasn't actually music. Except for me, no-one but a kokiri could hear it. I don't know why I'm allowed to. It hadn't seemed weird when I'd thought I was a Kokiri, but now I understood just what an anomaly it was. Maybe it was something in the water? Maybe the Deku Tree had done something for me as a baby? Whatever. Hopefully it would work here, too. In the Lost Woods, it would lead you to wherever you wanted to go as long as you wanted to go there bad enough.

"That one." I turned to point to one of the cave exits. I wasn't nearly as sure as I sounded, but indecision wasn't going to get us anywhere, and as Rose had said, the only way to deal with it was to deal with it. The next cave was larger and noticeably warmer. We made it through without hitting a warp, and I quietly let out the breath I'd been holding. Either my senses worked, or the Lost Caverns weren't quite so absolutely punishing as the Lost Woods, where one wrong turn meant ejection.

After a few more caves, I was sure I could hear the music.

It wasn't the calming song that the Lost Woods sang. The Lost Woods played in long, slow notes, the trees thrumming as they grew, lazy honeybees chiming as they visited flowers, the green grass singing happily as patches of sunlight slid across the forest floor. The Cavern music sounded like a march, the inexorable grinding of time. Drumbeats sounded deeply as doors opened and closed. A distant hammering noise faded in and out, like a smith working iron.

I had a sudden vision of Gorons laboring deep inside the earth, dipping their ironwork in lava, the red glow reflecting off their chiseled features. Maybe they weren't extinct as Saria feared, but hiding instead? She had said that they had become less and less common after the Fade, although whether that was due to the lack of magic or not, I had no idea. I hoped it wasn't.

I strained to hear it, but the song was definitely there. I remained cautious, but my confidence grew as cavern after cavern opened up ahead of us without hitting a warp tunnel.

We were maybe twelve caverns in when we hit trouble.

Rose, as usual, was the first to notice. The cavern we were in was long and narrow. I was walking slowly towards the two entrances at the other end, trying to determine which one the music was coming from, when she crashed into my back with a yell and knocked me flat on my face.

"Wallmaster!"

I scrambled to my feet and spun around. Zelda had dispatched the monster, and was pulling her daggers out of the corpse. I shuddered as the giant, wrinkly body, shaped like a severed hand, burst into magical flames. Those things had always creeped me out. As we dashed for the far exit, keeping one eye above us for more, I blessed the combat instincts Rose had inherited from Gannon. There was no way those things had cast a shadow in here. She must have been pretty keyed up to notice it.

The next bad cavern held re-deads. The mud dolls shambled towards us, attracted to warmth. They weren't very dangerous, so I left them to Rose, who burned one after another with a touch of her hand. Things started to get nasty after that, though.

We faced Skulltullas, the giant spiders sweeping down the walls in an unexpected horde. That fight left us drained, and dripping ichor. The monsters seemed to get stronger at the same pace as the music did. We would move easily for a few caverns, and then there would be a fight. We moved through ice caverns, fighting Freezards, or caverns where magma ran, bombarded by Lava Spumes from all sides. One cave was even paved. We fought Armos Knights there. Zelda was fascinated; she wanted to stay and explore, talking about lost technology and civilizations in the Light Realm, but Rose and I dragged her on, saying that maybe we could come back later if we had time.

"I think we're getting close." I said as we stopped for a rest in a quiet cave. This one had green and purple moss checkering the floor, growing in the light of giant luminescent mushrooms. Rose and I were sitting quietly on top of one, which made a pretty comfy chair, while Zelda collected spores. She claimed that she wanted to grow one in her room. Knowing her, she'd pull it off, too. I pictured Impa's reaction to finding a giant glowing mushroom in a pot and laughed a little.

"One more fight, maybe two, and we'll be at the exit. _If_ this place works like the Lost Woods. I've been trying to find a Lost Door that will bring us out somewhere in the vicinity of the Triforce." I said. Rose nodded, and hopped down off the mushroom.

"Zelda!" She called. "Let's move on! Sein thinks we're close!"

The next fight was a bad one.

As we walked through the cavern, rings of fire suddenly sprung up and cut us off from each other, reaching from the floor to the ceiling.

"What is this?" Rose yelled, not recognizing the attack. She tried to slice through the fire with her magic, but the spell was too strong, or she was too tired.

"Get ready for a fight!" I yelled, my memories tossing up an old, old battle, scenes from my time in Termina slowly surfacing in my brain. "Garos! Saw them in Termina! Some type of ghost! They're really fast, and-" I cut off as they appeared, with a bloodcurdling shriek. I'd only ever fought one at a time before, but here there were no less than six. I glanced around; each of the others faced comparable numbers. This was going to be tough. I felt the three tears laying against the skin of my wrist, and summoned my magical power, pushing the energy through the red gem and then into my blade, which ignited with a _Whoomph._ I grinned fiercely. That had worked even better than I'd hoped. The sounds of battle rang around me as all the Garos attacked at once.

"Use fire!" I yelled as I pierced the first one to reach me, and watched it go up in smoke, shrieking. I'd made the right choice igniting my sword, and I yelled it to the others. I heard another _Whoomph,_ and glimpsed a twisting column of golden flame out of the corner of my eye. Rose was going crazy with that. Then the rest of them were on me, and I didn't have time to think. I frantically called on Nayru's Love and summoned a shield, a glowing blue circle that could cover me but still let me attack, and tried to keep them from all hitting me at once. I took a dozen glancing blows in the first few seconds, but I did manage to get a solid blow on another one, sending it up in smoke after its brother.

By the time I was done I was streaming blood from shallow cuts and my clothes where veritably shredded. I was having trouble moving my left arm, but as long as I could get a red potion down soon I wouldn't be in trouble. The wall of fire flickered out around me and I looked around. Rose was frantically trying to pierce the wall of flame around Zelda, and Zelda was trying her best to hold her own against six sword-wielding ghosts. She wasn't doing so hot. Multiple opponents in close quarters combat was just about the worst possible situation for her.

"Zelda!" I yelled. "Use a shield! We'll do something about this!" She nodded and leaped upwards, speaking spell words and gesturing as she fell. When she hit the ground again, a magic insulator surrounded her; an impenetrable shield, shaped like a pink crystal. Unfortunately, absolute defense also cut off her offense, but she needed a breather.

"Rose!" I said. "I'm going to force an entrance! Get ready to go through!" She nodded and stopped throwing magical power against the wall, taking a breather to recoup what energy she could. I grasped my blue crystal, and bent the spell for all I was worth. As I concentrated, a glowing blue structure of pure force started to form in front of me, a giant auger shaped from streamers of shield magic. Once it was thick and strong enough, I spun it up, and yelled for Rose to get ready before flinging it with all my might at the flames.

With a shrieking scream that shook stones free from the cavern walls, it slowly sliced through the ghosts spell. Fairy magic might not be 'true' sorcery, but what it does, it does _well._ Naryu's Love stood up to the fire admirably.

As soon as it was through, I dissolved the drill tip and Rose dove past me, a half-dozen spheres of energy floating around her in a cloud. Six golden flashes shone out, almost simultaneously; six sorrowful wails echoed and the flames around Zelda flickered and went out.

I dashed forwards to catch her as she released the shield spell and slumped to the ground. She was bleeding profusely and she clutched her side, trying to cover a wound that was pumping blood into her indigo battle garb. I fumbled a red potion out and held it to her lips. She drank it gratefully and her head slumped immediately. She fell unconscious, slipping into a healing trance. I laid her on the ground and watched long enough to see the spread of blood from the wound in her side slow and stop.

Rose handed me a potion. She was in the best shape out of the three of us, having the most short-term burst power. Multiple, close range opponents had always been her forte. Fire, too, actually. She was tired, but hadn't even taken one cut. We sat down companionably. I rummaged around in my pack, and pulled out a flashlight. Turning on the electric light, I let my flame orb flicker out, finally relaxing.

"You said those were called Garos?" Rose asked, quietly.

"Yeah." I nodded. "I guess I never really told you about what happened between the time split and befriending you."

"No, not really. I kinda imagined that as soon as you got back, you headed for the desert."

"Not quite. When Zelda sent me back, she actually sent me farther back than the beginning of the war. She said something about 'giving me my childhood back'. It was kinda bogus, honestly. I think she felt guilty about what had happened, or something. I never really figured it out. Also, even though you'd given me that gem to take back to the younger you, I didn't really know what to do with it. Zelda told me later, when she got a look at it, but...Well, anyways, when I got back to the past, my fairy companion, the only person who'd seen everything that happened to me, left. So naturally, I went looking for her. I started in the Lost Woods. But while I was there, I was attacked by a Skull Kid and fell through some sort of inter-dimensional portal. That's part of why I thought that maybe the Lost Woods would exist in the Light World, too; when I came out the other side, I found myself in a part of the lost woods I'd never seen before. Turned out I was in another world, called Termina. Everything was creepily familiar, but none of it was the same. Lots of the same people were around, but none of them knew me; some of them were drastically different. The Gerudo, for example, were pirates, instead of robbers."

"Pirates?"

"Yeah. Gerudo on ships. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Anyways, there was this one region in that world, called Ikhana Canyon. I fought Garos there. I eventually made it back to Hyrule, and you know the rest. But that's how I knew."

"Did you end up saving the world?" Rose looked over at me.

"Um, kinda? There was this thing where the moon was falling, and I helped a little, I guess."

"Of course. Just a little."

I squirmed, uncomfortably. Maybe the reason I'd never told either Zelda or Ganon about Termina was because they'd have immediately labeled me as a hero again? I'd just done what needed doing. They would have done the same in my place.

"Sein, sometimes I think you're too bashful. At other times, I think it's one of your good points."

"Thanks, I think."

Zelda groaned and sat up, drawing attention from both of us.

"Feeling better, Princess?" Zelda nodded and pulled up her shirt to check her wound, baring a stretch of shapely white stomach. I averted my eyes uncomfortably.

"Looks like it healed just fine." Rose said. "How are your cuts doing, Sein?" I rubbed my hands over my arms and nodded. I was still smeared with blood and grime, but the wounds were gone. Rose dug out a green potion, and passed it to Zelda. "Here. This will help with the exhaustion." Zelda swallowed it greedily.

"Alright." After a few more minutes of rest I stood, and walked towards one of the corridors leading outwards. The cave was no longer the same square room we had started in. While we had fought and recovered, it had been shifting constantly. Now it was donut shaped, with exits on all four sides. I paced slowly around, listening. Thankfully, the cave was static while I searched, long enough for me to decide which one had the strongest music coming out of it. "Here. Let's go, before it shifts again."

We made our way confidently through the last few caverns. The music was getting so strong I barely needed to concentrate to hear it. Finally, upon stepping into one cavern, it swelled hugely and stopped, gone.

"This is it." I said. "Our exit should be here, if things work like they do back home." This cavern was filled with columns. Our lights cast long shadows, which danced and flickered as we moved through the cave, searching. Something caught my eye, as one of the shadows seemed to writhe. Then there was a glint of metal and a sword was sweeping towards me.

I flung myself backwards with a cry, drawing my sword and dropping my flashlight. I pumped a bit of magic into my sword, trying to light up my area. In front of me stood a man who looked vaguely like me. His skin, hair, and clothes were totally black though, a sooty black that absorbed all light. His eyes however, glowed red. My mind flashed backwards to the golden shade I'd seen; he looked a lot like him.

He attacked.

My mind flickered backwards. I'd fought this apparition before, in the Water Temple. He was good.

I was pushed steadily backwards. My oponent had the same skills I did, but his reflexes were uncanny and his movements impossibly fast. It took every single scrap of finesse and training I had, just to hold my own.

Rose intervened quickly. Her flashing fist connected with the shade from the side, and he was blown away. She stood there, arm outstretched, fist smoking, and turned to me.

"Sein, trust me on this. Drop your sword."

I did. Immediately. Rose had never led me wrong before.

The blade hit the ground with a clang, and the shade stopped advancing. He flipped the sword he was carrying around, so the hilt was towards me, and held it out.

"Take it." Rose said. I stepped forward cautiously, and grasped the hilt. "This is the Master Sword!" I exclaimed, as soon as the familiar weight of my favorite weapon pressed into my hand. The shadow let go of the blade, walked over to the black sword and picked it up before freezing in place.

"Yup," Rose said. "We left it with him. What better way to guard the triforce than the Blade of Evil's Bane? Pretty slick idea, if I do say so myself. He guards both the sword and the Triforce at once."

"He's not a real person." Zelda said. "Just a reflection of you. We were able to change the spell enough that he no longer wants to kill you on sight, but we had to take his sword away from him for the sealing. He wasn't too happy about that, and it looks like he holds grudges for a long while. He must have been tracking us, or maybe he came through the door here. Thankfully, he's not very complex, so I think that now he has his sword back, he's on our side again. Shadow, can you understand me?"

He turned to look at her gravely, nodded once, and then went back to being unnaturally motionless. "Do you know where the Lost Door in this room is?" He nodded once. "Please show us." The shadow led us to the back of the cavern, where a pool of water glistened, and motioned downwards. In the bottom of the pool was a small door. Rose gave the shade orders to follow us through and we dived in.

**:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::**


	18. Battle at the Triforce Temple

**Battle at the Triforce Temple**

**:::::::::::::::::::**

We came out next to a waterfall, the water roaring loudly in my ears as I surfaced and dragged myself to shore. It was still light out, but by the position of the sun we'd spent several hours in the Lost Caverns. Hopefully this was close enough to the Triforce Temple to make it worth while. I dropped my pack on shore and waded back into the water, trying to wash some of the grime off as the rest of the party surfaced. We took some time to clean up, washing as much of the dust and blood of the caverns off as we could. We didn't want to hike in wet clothes, so we took turns changing behind one of the huge boulders scattered around.

Then we carefully made our way out of the valley.

The Triforce Temple was just below us. The river we were following wound around one side of it. We made good time hiking down, reaching it just before sunset. As night fell, the flashing ind the windows that we'd decided was Twinrova trying to break down the shields slowed and stopped.

We wondered about that for a bit, but Zelda eventually hit on it. "Twinrova doesn't know we're here!" She said, surprised.

"Of course!" Rose exclaimed. "It makes sense now that you mention it, but I hadn't realized...this gives us a bit of an advantage. Lets rest; there's no need to attack during the night, since they seem to have stopped their attack on the shields." We camped right next to the gate, with Zelda's assurance that any magical tripwires were farther inside and wouldn't alert Twinrova to our presence.

We pitched camp. Zelda, claiming Shadow didn't need to either eat or sleep, set him to guard. He paced slowly around the camp all night. For supper, we ate the trail food Zelda had packed. It was bland, but satisfying.

When the sun set, the stars were astonishing.

I thought I'd seen bright stars before. I'd been camping out in the mountains, away from the light pollution of Hyrule Town. This, however, was something else. The pinpoints of light were spread so thickly across the sky, it looked more silver than black. Thousands of constellations we'd never seen before were smeared across the firmament. We lay in a circle on the dewy grass and looked for shapes until we fell asleep.

We got up early, not perfectly rested but good enough to get going. Shadow still paced around the edges of camp. The watch had apparently been uneventful. We broke our fast with granola bars and brainstormed a plan of attack.

"Well, whatever we go with, we should do it soon." I said. "I don't know if we can surprise them, but I'd much rather roust them out of bed than wait until they resume their attack on the barriers. Let's just walk in the front door. If they do know we're here, we're going to have to fight them anyways, and if they don't know we're here, any sort of scouting we could do is probably going to alert them."

Just as I finished speaking, a flash of red shone out of the temple, followed by a roaring crash.

"Any objections?" I asked, looking at them. They reluctantly shook their heads. We needed to move in now, in order to keep Twinrova from getting to the Triforce if we could, and they knew it. We got ready, leaving our packs by the gate, but taking the bottles of potion and distributing them to pockets and belts for easy access.

"Shadow," I said, "Back up Zelda when we get into the fight." He nodded. Zelda looked a little miffed, be she knew that she was the weakest when it came to one-on-one armed combat. Magical combat was another matter, but Shadow wouldn't be much help in magical combat anyways.

I turned to the giant gates, riveted up and down with six-inch steel rivets through giant iron straps. We'd built this temple together with the Sages. I remembered helping Darunia make this gate. He'd pulled the red hot rods out of the forge with his bare hands, and riveted the ends over with blows of his giant fists.

"We're going to need to see about getting the Sages back together again, once we return." I said.

"Yeah." Rose said. "It would be nice to have some backup here."

"Stop whining, and get moving." Zelda said. "Or do you need me to open the door for you?"

I shot her a glare, but stepped forward and placed my hand on the gates. I could feel the mechanisms and spells inside respond to my touch, the magic twisting the giant cogs that held the locking bar in place. There was a crunch as it slid backwards, shaking off years of rust, and then a creak as the gates swung open, fetching up against the inside of the wall with twin booms.

Zelda took the lead as we strode up the wide steps. The inner building had no doors or walls; it was just a huge domed roof, held up by pillars, with a covered walkway leading to the gate. The stone path we were on was easily twenty feet wide, lined with columns. It was paved with yellow stone, weathered at the edges, but clearly showing a repeating Triforce pattern further in. Looking forward, the hall stretched quite a ways, but I could still see where it opened up into the huge domed chamber at the end. I couldn't see the top of the pyramid that stood in the middle of the dome, but even if I hadn't remembered it, the golden glow that was cast against everything in that area told me clearly the Triforce sat there.

At the base of the pyramid stood the witches.

They hadn't noticed us, yet. They were standing in front of a green shell, a smooth wall of power that extended spherically in every direction around the Triforce. There had originally been nine barriers, I remembered, one from each Sage and one from each of us, but now only mine was left. I bit my lip nervously. I'd never been that good at magic. I'd cast it carefully, following Zelda's guidance, but I didn't have much faith in how strong it was. The others had insisted that mine go innermost, supposedly because I had the strongest connection to the Triforce. I think they all just wanted to see how low I could set the bar.

As we watched, Komue was readying a magical strike. She was muttering and shuffling, using both vocal cues and body movements to channel as much power as possible. The stone around her neck was glowing brightly. In the air above her, a giant hammer was starting to form, streaming together from strips of magic. We watched as she poured as much energy as she could muster into the blow. When the hammer was as heavy and complex as she could make it, she swung her hands down and yelled, and it flashed forward with imponderable force, slamming into the shield with a crashing blow that sent sparks flying in every direction. I winced, expecting the sheild to shatter, but it just brightened, the green gathering right around the hammer and dimming elsewhere, and held.

"Ingenious." Rose said. "I didn't know you were that good, Sein. Your shield is rearranging power to the best possible effect. No wonder it's held so long."

"Wait, it's holding?"

"Yeah." Zelda said. "It looks like yours turned out to be pretty effective after all. It's also got the smallest surface area, so that helps too. "

Wow. Maybe I'd done better than I realized.

Twinrova noticed us then. I don't know which of them saw us first, but both of them looked back down the corridor towards us and then started walking towards us.

"Somethings wrong." Rose said quietly. "judging by their aura, they're much more powerful than they should be."

Zelda nodded. "I know. It's especially annoying because I have no idea why. Get ready for a fight, guys."

"Kekekekeee!" Komue addressed us first, when they got close enough for conversation. "It's the little Princess! How are you, Princess?"

"Cease this immediately!" Zelda's voice rang out, strong and regal.

"Or what?" Kotake said, doing a mocking little dance. "You and your playmates will throw stones at us?"

"I see you don't recognize us." I said, stepping forward. "Maybe you'll recognize this?" I drew the Master Sword, and held it out in front of me.

"Gah!" She threw her hands up, and cowered for a second, before standing up straight. "Well, deary, that's frightening all right. But surely you don't think you're the only one with an artifact up your sleeve?" She sniggered at her own joke as she pulled a wand tipped with a blue jewel out of the cuff of her gown.

"The Ice Rod." I said to Zelda. "That's what they're using. It can-"

"Turn magical power directly into cold, deary." Komue said, drawing a red jeweled, but otherwise identical wand herself. "Just like the Fire Rod here can with heat. Even an untrained person could start a fire with this. Imagine what we can do!" And they broke into cackles again.

Suddenly, I felt uncomfortable warmth from my right side. I looked over at Rose.

Her whole body was on fire, golden flames licking upwards from her tennis shoes to the top of her hair, which was floating around her head like a halo. She looked like an avenging angel.

"You hags don't seem to have fully grasped the severity of your situation." Her voice was deep and threatening, the hatred she nursed for these two witches barely concealed. She stepped forwards and threw her hands out to the side. Orbs of power formed there, spinning up from pinpoints. Not her usual fireballs, or even the more compact golden missiles she sometimes used; these were as red as blood, and thrummed with explosive power. They grew quickly, bigger than tennis balls in a flash, bigger than bowling balls in an eye blink, expanding so rapidly I almost thought they were exploding. When they slowed, the were huge, easily four or five feet across.

Seeing one of Ganon's signature attacks, Komue and Kotake realized then who they were facing.

They were gone instantly, two receding shrieks being the only thing that told us they had split, each moving as fast as their magic would take them in opposite directions. Rose was after Kotake just as fast. I made a split-second decision and joined her, Zelda and Shadow following. Why not divide and conquer? This would be a lot easier if we could take them on one at a time.

We were out of the temple in as split second. This inner building had no walls; all the defenses had been in the magical shields. Kotake was riding on a broom, shrieking as she flew, swooping upwards to pass over the outer wall. Rose leaped after her, magical force lending her wings. I contemplated for a second, and then cast Nayru's Love. A series of translucent blue steps materialized in the air, and Zelda, Shadow and I sprinted up them. We threw ourselves over the wall and dashed after Rose, who was closing on Kotake and leaving us behind. As we ran, Zelda chanted something, moving her hands through a quick series of gestures. I felt magic power gather around us and then suddenly we were shooting forward, light as a feather. Kotake turned backwards on her broom, leveled the Ice Rod and started to take shots at us. I dodged blast after blast of super-chilled air. If even one of those hit me, it would freeze the blood in my veins. Zelda summoned some sort of shield, which slid them around her smoothly. I saw Shadow take one head on and shake it off as if it was nothing.

The fight dragged out for a few minutes. Rose closed steadily on the witch, who tried to pick us off with magic. When Rose got close enough, she swung one of those horrific red spheres at her. The witch blocked with summoned chunks of ice, but Rose's unstoppable fireball chewed through them easily. I saw her giant ball of flame slice through a yard-thick wall as if it wasn't even there, leaving only clouds of steam.

If we'd managed to close in around her, Kotake would have been well and truly sunk.

Just at that moment, however, I felt an indescribably huge surge of magic from the Triforce Temple.

I skidded to a stop and looked back. It seemed the witches had been holding back in their attempt to shatter the shield. We'd left, assuming the Triforce safe. Right over the temple rose a tornado of flame. It burned through the dome, dripping molten rock on the remaining shield before striking it directly. A sound like a thousand fingernails, all scything across the biggest blackboard imaginable rang out, and the shield shattered.

"Zelda!" I yelled. "The Triforce!" But she had seen as well, and we ran back just as fast as we had headed out, dashing madly back across the grassland. It was the work of a moment to scale the wall. We skidded to a stop in the central dome, panting, just as Komue reached the top of the pyramid and grabbed the floating golden triangles. There was a flash, and the world went gold.

I stumbled backwards, blinded. I could hear Zelda cursing, and the maniacal laughter of Komue. By the time my vision cleared, the triforce was gone and the witch floated at the top of the pyramid, glowing golden.

"Did she get it all?" I asked.

"No." Zelda said. "She got the piece of wisdom. The piece of power sped over towards Rose's battle; either of them could have gotten it, but we'd better assume it went to Komue. You've got the third. Go and help her, quick! I'll hold Komue here."

"But she has-"

"She's got my piece. I know. But I know how that thing works, and she doesn't. If she thinks she can out-magic _me_, she's in for a nasty surprise. Sein, GO! Shadow will guard me, and the Piece of Power is much more dangerous to Rose than the Piece of Wisdom is to me!"

Deciding she knew best, I was gone in a flash. I glanced down at my left hand. Sure enough, there was the mark; once again, I bore a piece of the Triforce.

By the time I got back to Rose's battle, it was obvious that the witch had received the Triforce piece. Rose was still fighting, but she was being punished mercilessly. Kotake was hovering in midair, surrounded by constellations of floating ice; thousands of times more than she had been able to summon minutes ago. The swarm swung this way and that at her merest whim. Rose was repulsed no matter where attacked from, the chunks of ice gathering to block her in an instant, and following inexorably after when she retreated. Her energy spheres were much smaller now. They spun around her with blurring speed, creating a shield through which Kotake struggled to force an attack. Despite this, the witch would win eventually; although it took a hundred pieces of ice to force one chunk through that shield, Kotake had a limitless supply, and was using them to deadly effect.

"Rose, tag!" I yelled, and threw myself into the fray. _If you've ever helped me, help me now!_ I thought at my Triforce piece. I bounced upwards, spreading the blue energy of Nayru's love beneath my feet as I ran. My sword burst into flame as I fed energy into my Din's Fire crystal. I hit that field of ice moving fast, and I accelerated.

Rose dropped back at my call. Kotake noticed me at the same time and swung all of her offensive power towards me. I gasped as the entire cloud of floating ice formed into a cone, the tip rushing towards me, untold tons of spinning, churning death. But something deep down inside me said: _Go for it. _

So I did.

My sword blurred in my hands, a hundred thousand strikes flowing out, every movement clearing my way of a chunk of ice. I didn't try to cut them, merely move them out of my way. Thinking back on what Rose had said, about how the Triforce of Courage affected my decisions, I marveled as my reflexes sped up, my instincts sharpened, and my sword skills came to mind in an instant, flowing from my hands almost without thought. The point of that giant floating cone of ice exploded as I hit it, an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. I carved a path through it and continued on, barely slowed.

Kotake was obviously shocked when I blasted through her attack. She screamed, and the ice cloud flowed backwards, moving to engulf me again, but I was moving faster. I rocketed through the air, at least thirty feet off the ground, right towards the witch. My sword was stretched out ahead of me and I was about to shove it through her skinny neck when Komue arrived.

The first warning I had was a shriek. Glancing backwards, I saw a red missile flying from the direction of the Triforce temple skim past me and slam into Kotake, knocking her out of my reach. I started to fall and realized that a hundred tons of ice, now uncontrolled, were still flying towards me. I swore and summoned Nayru's Love again, spinning a path out of thin air to dash sideways. The cone of ice hit the ground with a crash, flying through the space I'd vacated seconds ago.

Zelda warped in a second later. Her eyes were glowing gold, so brightly that I could see them from where I stood. Rose and I rushed over to meet her.

"Sorry," Zelda gasped, panting hard. "She got past me."

"It's Ok." I said. "Where's Shadow?"

"Gone. No time to explain. They're going to combine!"

"Damn, of course!" I looked back to where the two witches were hovering in midair. They'd started another spell. I wracked my brain, trying to think of something, anything, we could to do to even the odds. Suddenly, I was inspired.

"Hold out your hands! NOW!" I barked. We circled up again, and each laid our left hand in the middle of the circle. "I'm going to give you piece of my Triforce."

"What?" Zelda said. "That's not possible!"

"We're doing it anyways! I'm convinced we can beat them. You know the Triforce is fractal. Three triangles inside a large. Something is telling me that the Triforce of Courge has three pieces to it as well. And the power is virtually unlimited. You both know that the power you could draw from it was never limited by the Triforce itself, but only your ability to use it! I won't be losing anything, but you'll be gaining everything. Now hold still!"

I closed my eyes and concentrated, picturing myself standing in empty space, the Triforce of Courage in front of me. In order to be called courageous, you needed to understand what was going on, trust your instincts, and make the right decision. I reached out a hand to touch it, and _wished. _

Slowly, ever so slowly, a triangle of emptiness appeared in the middle of it. The gap moved faster as it got bigger, until finally, with a musical chime, three golden triangles floated in front of me. I touched the top one. _This is the fragment of instinct. _I knew it instantly. This one was for Rose. I wished it to her, and heard her gasp. I touched the bottom left one. _This is the fragment of deciding. _That one was mine. That means the last one...I touched it. _This is the fragment of understanding. _Yup, that one was for Zelda. I wished it to her, and opened my eyes.

Looking at our left hands, we each bore the Triforce symbol, but inside the bottom-left triangle there was an even smaller Triforce symbol. Mine had the bottom left filled, Zelda's had the bottom right, and Rose's had the top.

"What do you guys think?" I said. "Can you use it?" Zelda nodded. "This is nothing like the Triforce of Wisdom. With that, every single spell was laid out in my mind and I could pick from any of them at an instant. This is more like...I can only think of one spell as usual, but as soon as I know what I need, it's in my mind." That sounded like what my sword skills had been doing a little while ago.

"What about you, Rose?"

"Yeah, I can use this." She grinned. "Instinct, right? I don't even have to think; I can automatically be doing exactly what I need. My reflexes-" She conjured a dagger, and whipped it around. "-are unbelievable. This will definitely give us an edge. How about you?"

I looked up at Twinrova. They had dissolved into light, and were nearly done merging.

"I'm good. we need to stop them from merging. If they combine, they'll have two pieces working together. We'd have trouble countering that. Rose, go!"

She responded immediately, dashing forward as she summoned a cloud of energy spheres, her powers re-enforced by the Triforce fragment. She leaped, her magic sending her soaring through the air. Then the swarm of missiles she was trailing spun apart, and came slamming back together on the two witches.

The witches screamed, but the spell was too far along to stop. They collapsed into a glowing ball, and then unfolded. Their new body was gold, shiny and metallic, vaguely feminine, with a triforce etched above the left eye. The top triangle and the bottom right triangle were depressed, while the bottom left was only etched around the edges. Without warning, they retaliated.

I'd thought Komue's sphere of moving ice had been impressive, but it was child's play compared to the storm of flames and icicles that they summoned now. It had only been a few minutes since they gained the Triforce pieces, but they were already starting to acclimate to them. I gulped, hoping Rose would be OK in there, but relaxed when I felt Zelda throw a shield spell around her.

Wait, _felt?_

_Zelda? _I reached into the fragment of the Triforce I carried, and tried to send her the thought.

_Huh? _The thought she returned was surprised. I felt the emotions carry through the fragment clearly.

_I think we may have wrought more than we knew._ I watched as a gout of flame was spat out of the raging inferno Rose was fighting in. It soared towards Zelda, who was shielding Rose. I grasped the blue tear, and poured my magical power into it, and through the fragment of courage. Nayru's Love formed instantly around Zelda, stopping the flame.

_Thanks. _

_No problem. Let's see if we can get Rose talking to us too. _

_I'm here. _Her voice came in clearly. _I could hear you guys from the first. It just took a second to figure out how you were doing it. _

_How are you holding up in there? _I asked.

_I'm doing OK. I can't match them for power, so I'm dodging like hell. It seems to be working, though. Zelda, would you do me a favor and spin up a lightning strike? _

I felt the power gather around Zelda. Then, Rose reached through our combined Triforce piece, and somehow took it from her. I heard a crackle, a boom, and a scream from the witches.

_Damn. That worked better than I thought. _She said. _This thing is pretty handy. Any idea why it's doing this, Zelda? _

_I think it's because it's still actually one piece. Even though we split it up, it's much more solidly connected than the original one. _

_Huh. _I said. _Listen, Zelda, if I get in close, can you pass me a spell that will do something to them? _

_Are you kidding? _She sent back to me. _This is what every magician dreams of. I've got time to set up something big, without worrying about getting to close to cast it? We'll knock 'em cold. _

_Sounds good. _

I downed a green potion to restore my magic reserves and dashed into the fray, leaping upwards on shimmering blue footholds. Outside the storm, it had been crazy; inside, it was insane. I flew past Rose. She was dodging with all her might, just like she'd said. I took the cue, and didn't even try to block anything. I drew power from Nayru's Love constantly. Wherever I needed a foothold, I had one. I slid past tumbling boulders of ice, and slipped around roaring clouds of flame. I dodged and ducked, tumbled and soared, and slowly worked my way inward through the inferno. Soon, I caught a glimpse of the golden form in the middle of the tornado.

_What'cha got for me, Zelda?_ As I watched, Rose slipped one of her golden spheres into the interior of the storm. It sliced into Twinrova, who screamed, and redoubled their efforts to crush and burn her. She slipped lithely away, dancing past all their efforts. I felt Zelda pass me a magical construct of immense complexity and power. It flowed from her corner of the Triforce of Courage to mine, until it hung in the air around me, giant and shimmering invisibly.

_Snap your fingers to activate._ She said. _It's a huge spear, so you might want to get above them and point it downwards. _

_Sounds good._ I took advantage of the fact that Rose was drawing their attention, and climbed upwards. The storm thinned a little as I gained altitude. When I was high enough, I leaped outward, snapped my fingers, and let the spell materialize. Strands of magic warped into existence, building on and torquing each other until I was carrying a massive lance, carved from blue light. It glittered as I fell towards the unsuspecting witches. I took a second to stabilize my fall, and then I thought a warning to Rose, threw it with all the force I could muster, and bailed hard.

Rose curled a little magic under her feet and shot out of the storm like a bullet. I spun myself a blue pathway and slid down it, looking backwards as I surfed my way to safety. A split second after we got clear, an ear shattering scream rang out, and the vortex exploded. Huge chunks of ice and lumps of fire spewed everywhere.

We gathered around Zelda. The giant spear had pierced the witches golden shoulder and pinned them to the ground. It was burning with blue flames.

"Did we finish them?" Rose asked.

"Not by a long shot." Zelda said. "But I'm sure they felt that. Unfortunately, I think next time it's going to be harder to hit them."

The witches golden figure reached over to the spear, screaming with pain when the flames bit into their hand. But they grasped it anyways and yanked it out, throwing it towards us. It dissolved in midair. They stood, slowly.

**"We are the most powerful being this world has ever seen!"** They cried. **"We understand now we were merely playing with the ideas of cold and heat! Let us show you what true cold means."** The golden figure raise its arms, and started to chant. After a second, the light around them started to warp and bend, and a heavy wind started up, blowing fiercely towards them.

"What," I said, "Is that?"

"That light distortion... it's a miniature black hole!" Zelda answered, astounded. "They must have cooled the molecules in that area to absolute zero!"

"That's ridiculous!" Rose said. "Why didn't I ever think of doing that?"

"You didn't have the Triforce of wisdom. If we don't do something soon, these two really are going to be unstoppable." Zelda replied. "Absolute knowledge AND absolute power? They could build an army of robot clones to fight us, or something equally ridiculous. They really will be invincible."

"They really created a black hole?" I said. "They might be powerful, but that seems shockingly stupid to me. Let's chuck something at it. Ten to one, it'll destabilize and blow them out of existence."

Both of the girls stared at me.

"No, really. Because of quantum tunneling, the smaller a black hole is, the faster they evaporate. They've got to be spending a bunch of energy stabilizing it. If we chuck something in it, I bet the gravity waves will mess with them and it'll go off."

"We've done stupider things." Rose added. "And they worked out. Like the time I threw a bottle of wine into that Bublin camp, and they actually knocked each other out over it? I _never_ would have thought that one could work."

"Fine." Zelda shrugged. "Lend me your magic. We'll chuck one of those chunks of ice at them." We both put our hands on her shoulders, and poured our magic into her. She spoke the words for a telekinesis spell, and the ice chunk lurched, jumped, and flipped into the air, headed right for the place the light was distorting above Twinrova. As soon as it was on it's way, we all conjured the most powerful shields we could think of. I put up at least three layers of Naryu's love.

The explosion was truly shocking. It started with an unbelievable flash. Zelda, thankfully, had put up some sort of mirror spell, but it didn't go all the way around; it was was facing the explosion. Just the amount of light reflected by the surrounding landscape was enough to blind temporarily. Thankfully our shields stopped the blast and the noise, but we were thrown around like crazy as a wall of dirt rolled over us.

By the time things had stopped shaking and moving, we lay at the edge of a crater that was probably half a mile across. Twinrova was gone. Definitely. The only thing left was their two pieces of the Triforce, floating in the air, spinning and dancing in that way they had, over the center of the crater. We stumbled to our feet. The shields had held, but just barely.

"That," Zelda said, "Was entirely too close for comfort."

"Yeah." Rose said. "I don't know if I'd vote for doing that a second time."

We stood in silence for a minute, until I realized that the Triforce was floating slowly towards us. Soon it was quite near, and the three fragments we had slowly detached themselves from us, morphed back into one piece, and joined the other two. I slowly reached out my hand.

"Well, anyone got a wish?" I said.

"Home!" They both chorused.

"Ok. Here goes." I reached out and touched it. The world turned gold.

**:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::**

_Well, you made it._ I floated in space, surrounded by golden light. In front of me stood an elegant woman, with blue hair that hung down her back. She reminded me a little of Zelda.

"Nayru?"

_Indeed. And let me introduce my sisters._ She waved to the right and left. _Din, and your patron, Farore._ Farore waved at me. her green hair curled thickly, and she looked cheerful and irrepressible. Din bowed. Her red hair was cut short, and she was carrying a spear. She looked serious, but friendly.

_So, do you have a wish?_ This time it was Farore who spoke. Her voice was high and light, like my little sisters.

"Yeah. We want to go home."

She looked a little disappointed.

_That's all? _

"Would you prefer if I asked for world dominion?"

_No. But you could ask to live happily ever after. _

I eyed them for a minute.

"And my friends?"

_Sorry. _Din said. _Only one wish. _She sounded somber as well, but somehow comforting.

"No." I said. "I couldn't make that sort of wish, not without my friends. Please just send us home. And put this back, if you don't mind." I pulled the Master Sword out of its sheathe and handed it to Farore.

The three of them nodded, and there was another flash of gold.

**:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::**

"Pwah!" A yell jerked out of my throat as I woke up, bolting upright and throwing the covers off of my bed. The sheets were soaked in sweat, and my heart was beating fast, but sweet birdsong was trailing in through the open window, and the warm air of a spring day gently played with the curtains.

_I'm wearing my pajamas. I'm in my bed. _

When I'd asked for home, they certainly delivered. I looked at my nightstand. My phone was there, the charger plugged into the wall where it always was. I check the contacts. A moment of panic subsided as I found S. for Zelda, and R. for Rose. As I'm holding it, it rings, a call from R.

"This is Sein."

"Sein, it's me, Rose! I woke up in my house, and I was afraid it was all a dream, because my stuff was back and my phone was here and it was all so wild and-"

"Rose."

"And maybe the Triforce thought we wanted to all go back to how things had been and-"

"Rose!"

"And I really had fun hanging out with you guys, but if it was all just a dream or things had gone back to usual I'd be bored and school's months away and-"

"ROSE!"

She finally stopped talking.

"Can you still use magic? You still have your memories?"

"Yes."

"Me too. It all happened. It was real." Suddenly, my phone beeped; I was getting another call. "Hey, Zelda's calling. I'll catch you later."

"Ok."

"Hello, Zelda?"

"Oh, thank goodness. I thought maybe that-"

"I know. Me and Rose, too. But they took me at my word, apparently, and just sent us home. Did a remarkably good job of it, too. Listen, you want to meet up? We can call Rose, and get together. I think we ought to talk everything over. Life is going to be a little wild from now on, maybe. We'd better have some idea of what we're looking at from here on out."

"Yeah. That would be good. I'll call you later."

"Ok." I hung up, and looked out the window.

_Happily ever after indeed._

**::::::::::::::::::::::::::**


	19. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

**::::::::::::::::**

_Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing. _

A collective sigh sounded through the classroom as the bell rang. I dropped my pencil and joined everyone in shoving stuff into my backpack. I grinned happily, and headed for my locker. it was Friday and school was over. Life was good.

On the way, I passed a couple of guys hitting on a tall redhead with green eyes.

"Come on, just give us your number. We only wanna chat."

"Hey, leave her alone." I said, stepping in front of her.

"Or what, you'll beat us up?" The leader said, glaring at me.

"No. I'll let her beat you up. It'll be much worse."

They muttered among themselves for a minute, and then decided we weren't worth the trouble.

"Come on, Rose." I said. "Why do you let them get away with that?"

"Hey, it's not like I can just go beating people up. I have to protect my secret identity, you know?" She replied. We walked down the hallway, talking and laughing. Suddenly, I noticed a blond haired, red-eyed man leaning against a drink machine and surveying the nearby people.

"Hey Sheik. What's up?"

"Hey guys. Thought you might want to hang out. There's a horror movie I wanted to see."

We all grinned at each other at that. 'Horror movie' was our code for a monster worth some attention.

"Sounds good. Meet you out back?" I said. We stopped by our lockers, and then walked to the small parking lot behind the main building. Sheik was sitting there in his blue camouflage jeep. We threw our bags in the back, and I pulled out the sword he'd brought me, buckling it on and drawing it once to check the balance.

"Man, Sheik, can't you get me anything better?"

"Sein, that sword is two hundred years old, supposedly crafted by the last of the Gorons. I don't know how you manage to destroy them so fast! The last one didn't last more than one battle when we went up against that Darknut. This one is supposed to be even better, but it's not like legendary blades are common. Or cheap. And it's not like an ordinary legendary blade could match up to the one you used to use."

"You should just use magic, like me." Rose said, shaping a sword out of thin air.

"Yeah, yeah. I just wish I remembered where I'd stashed one of the magical swords I picked up on my travels. I tell you, five hundred years ago, people made weapons, not these flimsy toys." I sheathed the sword again, and sat down.

Sheik gunned the engine, and we were off.

Life had settled down. It wasn't 'normal', but it was good. We spent at least one or two days a week hanging out, often times hunting up new artifacts, or hunting down monsters. When the Goddesses had returned us home, they'd replaced the Master Sword in it's pedestal like I'd asked, re-establishing the flow of magic as it had been five hundred years ago, and resetting the original magical defenses for the Triforce. Over the summer, we had traveled back to the desert and broken the Mirror of Twilight into four pieces, shutting off that doorway to the Light Realm. It would take a pretty high-level magician to reassemble it, and they'd have to find it, first. One piece was under my bed, one was under Rose's, one was under Zelda's, and one was under Sheik's.

Rose and I were official citizens of the Deeper World, as much as that was possible. We knew the neighborhoods around our houses completely differently now. I knew that the old man down my street made great potions, and I visited him often. Rose lived near a cobbler who could make you a pair of shoes overnight that would always fit and never wear out. In his sleep, he claimed.

Saria had gathered up all the medallions that had surfaced, and was working on recruiting Sages. Blind was the new Sage of Fire, and Kirio was the new Sage of Shadow. The Water medallion and the Spirit medallion hadn't turned up yet, and no-one they had tested so far had been able to use the Light medallion. The treaty holding the Deeper World together was still strong, largely in part to them, but also in part to Princess Zelda's new strike team.

They came and went like the breeze, accepting orders from no-one but the Princess, and working with amazing speed and efficiency.

I smiled. There were rumors spreading around the Deeper World, saying all sorts of things about us. They said I could cut through solid steel, that Sheik could fly, and Rose could breathe fire. That last one was even true.

We'd been pretty busy, lately. Zelda wasn't sure what to do about the flow of magic. Artifacts were turning up faster then ever, some of them truly powerful ones. Monsters, too, were becoming more and more common. The everyday world was going to find out soon, and if we didn't make a decision fast, we wouldn't have any control over how that happened. Rumors were already circulating widely. I'd even heard someone talking about how they'd found a rupee the other day.

I leaned back in my seat, and stopped worrying about it. That sort of thing could work itself out.

We had a monster to kill, and it was going to be a blast.

**::::::::::::::::::::::**

Well, I promised that this would be finished one way or another, and now it is! Sorry it took so long to get these last chapters up; I've been at a really low point in my life, and this has been a pretty low priority. This is officially The End; the next writing project I'm working on isn't Zelda related at all. If anyone is really interested in reading it, let me know with a PM or a review, and I'll point you guys to it if/when I start publishing.

I hope you enjoyed "The Legend of Zelda – Ancient Artifacts"!


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